PoA - Snape Knew? (w/ canon)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 143424

Ginny wrote:
<snip quote>
> 
> Okay, this is the canon that makes me think that the DEs knew Peter
was the one who "double-crossed" and gave the information to
Voldemort, even though the rest of the wizarding world thought it was
Sirius.  It is possible I am reading it wrong or reading too much into
it.  At any rate, it sounds like Voldemort's supporters are mad at
Peter for some reason.  But if everyone thinks this is nothing and I
am off base, I will gladly drop it. :)

Carol responds:
To me, Snape's actions in PoA seem to indicate that he really thought
that Sirius had betrayed the Potters and he's angry because he, Snape,
tried to prevent their deaths (despite hating James) and failed
because of Sirius's supposed treachery. He has believed that Sirius
was capable of murder since they were both sixteen (the so-called
Prank). He *wants* to believe Sirius capable of blowing up twelve
Muggles and PP, and Sirius's actions in PoA (breaking into Hogwarts
twice, slashing the bedcurtains and the painting) seem to confirm his
belief that Black is a homicidal maniac. Snape also *wants* Lupin to
be guilty of helping Sirius into the castle since he believes that
Lupin was a willing participant in the Prank. He furiously refuses to
hear anything that contradicts these cherished beliefs. Also, he only
overhears part of the conversation in the Shrieking Shack and has no
way of knowing that PP is alive and in the Shrieking Shack with them.
(He's shocked later when the black dog transforms into Sirius,
indicating that he still disbelieved what little he heard of the
Animagi story until that point.)

As for the DEs talking about Peter in Azkaban, since we're told byt
Sirius most of the Azkaban prisoners quickly falling into their own
black thoughts (or insanity or even death) because of the Dementors,
the passage you quoted probably relates to the four DEs whose arrival
we know he witnessed some months after Godric's Hollow: Bellatrix, the
Lestrange brothers, and Barty Jr. I'm guessing that Bellatrix, at one
time LV's most trusted follower, knew who the spy was and later, after
Voldemort was vaporized and most of the other DEs were arrested,
confided this information to her husband, her brother-in-law, and the
young Barty Jr. I seriously doubt that the other DEs, including Snape,
knew about Pettigrew. After all, the fewer people who know about a
spy, the more effective that spy will be. Even fewer would know that
he was the Potters' Secret Keeper, an arrangement that lasted only a
week and which I'll discuss later in this post.

We know from Karkaroff that the Death Eaters didn't necessarily know
one another, and it seems likely that PP is one that most DEs didn't
know. For one thing, he was a former Gryffindor and an Order member,
and they would not have trusted him. I'm not even sure that he was a
Death Eater at this point, just a spy. (Snape apparently was spying
for Dumbledore without being a member of the Order of the Phoenix
since he's not in the photo that Moody shows Harry; no one except DD
knew about his role. Sirius certainly didn't. As secretive as
Voldemort is, it seems logical that he would make a similar
arrangement: Peter would spy for him without the DEs knowing of his role.)

It's possible, of course, that Sirius's remark about the DEs knowing
about PP is just a lapse in consistency on JKR's part (like the
occasional references to the Lestranges as a married couple when we
know there were three of them), but I think only the four DEs
previously mentioned knew about Peter--and informed the other
prisoners (those who were still sane enough to understand) of what
they thought they knew. Or maybe those four only talked among
themselves, with Barty Jr. quickly falling out of the mad conversation
as he succumbed to the Dementors. Maybe he's one of those who screamed
about it in their sleep. Certainly there was no idle chit chat in that
horrible place.

As for Peter being the Secret Keeper, that's a completely separate
matter that the DEs were unlikely to know about. Only a chosen few
would know (Dumbledore, who suggested the idea; the Potters; Sirius
Black; PP; and possibly Lupin, who may have been present when the idea
was suggested). And certainly no one, not even Dumbledore or Lupin,
knew that the intended Secret Keeper had been changed from Sirius to
Peter a week before the Potters' deaths. So even if some of the DEs
knew that PP was a spy, it's most unlikely that they knew he was the
SK, or even that a Fidelius Charm had been placed on the Potters.
Snape, *who was already teaching at Hogwarts*, may have been told by
DD about the charm being placed and that James intended for Sirius to
be the SK, but he (Snape) definitely would not have known, any more
than DD did, that James (and Lily) had decided to accept Sirius's
suggestion and make switch to PP. He may not have even known about the
Fidelius Charm at all. It would not have been common knowledge until
after Voldemort's fall.

Carol, hoping that Ginny finds at least some of these speculations
persuasive