Snape, the Prophecy, the Potters, Longbottoms and Wormtail.

[kmalone1127]

No: HPFGUIDX 142092

kmalone1127:
 This is my first post so I hope I did everything right.  A sudden
thought occurred to me about Snape.  It occurred to me as I was
reading some of the discussions about the Ch. 2 summary questions. 
Someone (don't remember who) mentioned that Bella looks down on
Wormtail because Voldemort met his downfall on his info.  That made me
think about Snape and how he overheard the propecy.  Forgive me if
this has been discussed before, I haven't been able to read every
post.  This is how I see it going down.  Trelawney starts prohesising
and once she statrs, nothing will stop her.  Dumbledore hears a
disturbance outside the door but can't leave for risk of missing
something.  Sanpe had been listening but was caught by Aberforth and
they started to struggle.  Aberforth, not being as skilled as his
brother, could not manage to overpower Snape and they burst into the
room.  The prophesy is not that long, it probably did not take up more
thatn thirty seconds.  From DD's memory though, we know that Trelawney
started to repeat it.  I think maybe a minuet or so passed.
 Once DD was sure that there was no more, he went to Aberforth's aid
and threw Snape from the building.  Aberforth told DD when he first
noticed Snape and so DD was able to deduce how much of the prophecy
Snape heard.  Snape then went to his master.  This is where it gets
fuzzy.  Snape is not an idiot.  He had to have known that he did not
hear the entire prophecy.  Regardless, he felt that Voldemort ought to
know that one had been made.  This is the sticky part, Snape, knowing
that he did not hear the entire thing told Voldemort.  Now he either
told him that he did not hear the whole thing trusting that his master
would be smart enough not to act on incomplete info, or he told
Voldemort that he heard the whole thing for reasons that at this point
we can only guess at.  Remember, this was before he joined DD. 
Regardless of which, he told Voldemort.  Now, Voldemort strikes me as
a very methodical person.  When he is brought information that there
are two boys that might have the potential to destroy him, I see him
thinking, "Well I will just have to kill them both."  Now, the Potters
and the Longbottoms were both very gifted and respected people.  It
makes sense that both families were in hiding.  So when Voldemort got
his info, he did not know where they were.  Here comes little Peter
Pettigrew with the location of one of the boys.  In his methodical
mind Voldemort would think, "Ah, good.  I will destroy this one and
then when I know where the other is I will destroy him too."  And off
he goes.  He even says in GoF that he had miscalculated.  Perhaps that
meant that he had acted hastily on information he either knew to be
incomplete or miscalculated in his apparent upswing of trust in one of
his agents.  Or even something else, I'm not entirely sure.  It does
speak to a methodical mind, though.
 I like this way of thinking in that it makes Voldemort seem more
realistic that the "Evil Dark Lord going after specific Chosen One". 
I know that JKR has told us through DD that Voldemort chose Harry
because he saw himself in him, but this is from a character that has
admitted he makes mistakes.  Or perhaps I'm just looking to much into
it, us fans tend to do that.  Anyway, Back to my original thought, we
now have two people in Voldemort's retinue that have helped, on
purpose or not, to his downfall.  Both of them are in some way
connected to Harry, Wormtail through Harry's mercy and Snape through
Harr's father and DD.  I aslo see a lot of parallels between Wormtail
and Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. Both are wretched creatures
that have been corrupted by the evil in their hearts that has been
magnified by an outside force, both seem to have inner conflicts and
both seem to hate and love themselves at the same time.  I also see
parallels between him and Darth Vader.  Both were good before turning
to evil and both have a redeeming factor, Vader through love for his
son and Wormtail through Harry's mercy, or love.  I feel it is
interesting to note that Snape is a lot like how Phineus Nigellus
described Slytherins.  He is very clever, brave to a point, but in the
end will do what he can to survive.  Perhaps in delivering the
prophecy to Voldemort he saw an opportunity to prolong his life.  He
said it himself to Bella, he had a comfortable position and did not
want to give it up.  Even if he was lying to her the best lies are
ringed with truth.  Why did he take Draco with him as he fled
Hogwarts?  Snape has just made himself Voldemort's top man, he could
have left him there for the Order to deal with.  I firmly believe that
Voldemort meant for Draco to fail, so is Snape taking him back for
punishment or for some other reason?  I'm not trying to prove anything
specific, just offering food for thought.  I'm sure that this has been
discussed before but I don't know that it has been presented in this
way yet.  Anyway, that all that was on my mind, I hope it made some sense.

Kmalone1127