When did Snape attempt to save the Potters?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 141244

Alla wrote:
> > Where else is is stated for a fact that Snape made an attempt to
save Potters? Pretty please?
<snip>
> 
Saraquel responded:
> Well there's an interesting quote from PoA (UK ed p265)where Snape
enters the room in the shrieking shack -
> 'Like father like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck, you
should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well served
if he'd killed you! You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to
believe you might be mistaken in Black -'
> 
> <snip> The implication to me, is that Snape personally warned James
that Sirius was a spy (that he was mistaken is not the point here)and
in Snape's eyes James ignored the advice and ended up dead. I proposed
that Snape sent a message, probably via his patronus, telling the
Potter's that Voldemort knew where they were and was coming for them,
and that their secret keeper had blabbed.  Snape would have thought
that Sirius was the secret keeper. <snip>

Carol adds:
I agree with you, Saraquel, and I was under the impression that I had
cited the same quote in response to a similar query from Alla in
another thread some time back, but maybe it was offlist, or I intended
to do it and forgot. (Oh, well!)

At any rate, I share your interpretation of the quoted passage, but I
don't think Severus would have used his Patronus at that point because
to my knowledge, he wasn't an Order member. (He isn't in the photo
that Mad-eye Moody shows Harry in OoP.) I think he was spying for
Dumbledore without anyone else's knowledge. I had the idea that he had
confronted James in person before the Fidelius charm was placed (which
would explain his violent reaction to James's "arrogant" refusal to
believe him). There would be no point in talking to him if the
Fidelius Charm had already been placed; the idea was to dissuade him
from trusting Sirius (or any of his friends) because one of them was a
spy for Voldemort. (Exactly how Severus could have done that without
revealing that he was a DE I don't know, but that's beside the point.)

Another possibility is that he used an owl. Even if Severus didn't
know where James was, the owl would have been able to find him. In
fact, I think it could have done so even after the Fidelius Charm was
placed, since owls can deliver mail to 12 Grimauld Place. But by that
time, as I said, it would have been too late.

I'm almost certain that SS attempted to warn James while he was still
a spy for Dumbledore. He would have had no opportunity to do so
(except by owl) after September 1, when he began teaching at Hogwarts.
DD would have known of his attempt, and his bitterness at its failure,
and that would have been part of DD's reason for trusting him.

I'm not a Snape/Lily shipper; I think the reason he wanted to save the
Potters, aside from (IMO) not wanting to be party to murder, was his
life debt to James. But in any case, the PoA quote that Saraquel cited
does seem to support the view that SS tried to prevent the Potters'
death. And it helps to explain the intensity of his hatred for Sirius,
whom he believes throughout PoA and probably GoF as well to have
betrayed the Potters and murdered twelve Muggles. (He overhears only a
small part of the conversation in the Shrieking Shack and does not
witness the transformation or escape of Scabbers/Pettigrew.)

Carol, who refers to the young Snape as "Severus" and the young Lupin
as "Remus" to match "Sirius" and "James"--they were all about 22 at
this point

P.S. This post was supposed to be a response to message 141222, but
for some reason, it won't thread.