Snape's defection: the timeline question

[Najwa]

No: HPFGUIDX 151211

Pippin wrote:
> It's possible Dumbledore cut some deals of his own, after all he's no
> fan of Azkaban, but from  Snape's "sudden movement"  they may 
> have believed Malfoy's story. 
> 
>
Najwa:
I am having trouble with Snape myself. On the one hand he totally
seems to be devious and I absolutely abhorred him for killing off
Dumbledore, but a thought that never left me is, can Dumbledore be
that much of a fool to trust such a person as Snape? We've learned a
lot about Snape in this book, but I highly doubt he's completely "gone
over to the dark side." It would make sense that JKR would want to
show us that even the best of people can be wrong, but that's just too
big of a slip up in my opinion. If Voldemort himself is afraid of
Dumbledore and cannot fool him, I highly doubt that Minion!Snape can
in my humble opinion. There is more to this than meets the eye. It
would be a huge let down to find out that Dumbledore was an old fool.
I expect a very good turning of the tables in the next book, or at
least I hope so.