[HPforGrownups] Re: How long was Snape a DE? was: Harry IS Snape!

[Kathryn Jones]

No: HPFGUIDX 141221

colebiancardi wrote:


>  > Guru asks:
  Has anyone discussed the idea that
>  > Snape  never was really a DE, that he was a spy when he joined?
> 
>   What does DD mean when he tells the courtroom in GoF
> that Snape *came back*?  Did Snape start out working for DD,
> get seduced by LV, became a DE spy, had second thoughts and turned
> back to DD? 
> colebiancardi

   KJ writes:
      From what we are given on Snape's behaviour and attitude about the 
prank and information on his age, I suspect that he was a miserable and 
bitter person from 5'th year to 7'th. He had narrowly escaped from the 
prank, the Marauders were not punished and he was obviously told, for 
whatever reason, to keep it to himself. Presumably,he was still being 
harassed by James and Sirius when the opportunity presented itself and 
he was undoubtedly retaliating, if not actually beginning the agression.
      Because of his late birthday, he would have been nineteen when he 
graduated. We know that there are no wizarding universities, so he would 
have either gone to work, like Riddle did, at a place like Borgin & 
Burkes, or an apothocary, or apprenticed to someone. JKR says he was 35 
or 36 in GoF, which would make him 37 in Ootp. He had been teaching for 
14 yrs, which would make him 22 yrs when he started. He would have been 
23 after the first term.
      So, since whatever friends he had, were or became DEs one can 
reasonably assume that for whatever reason, he became one as well, 
willingly. I think that is the period that Dumbledore refers to as 
having been "good" and then becoming "bad", he returned to the good.
      Assuming he was the spy who provided the warning to the Order 
about the Potters, he would have turned himself in to Dumbledore between 
two years and six weeks prior to the Potters' demise. There seems some 
confusion as to when the Potters actually were informed and went into 
hiding. One converation in the books places them going into hiding just 
after Harry's christening, and another conversation places it a week 
before they were killed.
       Most reasonably, it would seem that Snape was a loyal DE for 2 
years at least and possibly a bit longer. Considering Snape's general 
attitudes and bitterness, I can't imagine him at the age of nineteen 
being a volunteer as a spy to the point of becoming a fake DE. I can 
imagine him, like Harry, being horrified at what he had become and 
asking Dumbledore for help to save the Potters. He would not have gone 
to Dumbledore otherwise. Dumbledore recruited him as a spy. Fortunately 
for him, Voldemort vaporized himself after he had been serving as a spy
for about 15 months. I think that his explanation that Voldemort had 
sent him to Dumbledore to apply for work was factual. It must have been 
a very tense few months going back and forth.
Just my understanding of it.
KJ