16 years of teaching at Hogwarts? (wasRe: Copyediting Errors - Listed?)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 157314

"justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> Carol earlier:
> > > Other examples, ...and Snape having taught for 
> > > fourteen years at the beginning of OoP but having 
> > > sixteen (should be fifteen) years worth of 
> > > information on Dumbledore. ... 
> > 
> > 
> > Potioncat:
> > ...
> > 
> > If Snape had been teaching 14 years in the fall during 
> > Umbridge. Then he had been teaching for 15 years the 
> > fall he was DADA. But we don't know that he wasn't 
> > already spying on DD before that. ...
> 
> Carol responds:
> I agree that Snape was *spying* for Dumbledore for about
> a year before he started teaching, but he wouldn't want 
> to reveal that information to Bellatrix. He would only 
> have wanted to mention the fifteen years of teaching as 
> a means of (ostensibly) gathering information on 
> Dumbledore to provide to Voldemort if and when he 
> returned. ...

bboyminn:

Though I am willing to be wrong about this, I don't think I am.

I think there is one small point we are overlooking in our analysis of
this particular aspect of the timeline. Voldemort SENT Snape to
getting good with Dumbledore. Everyone seems to be counting the time
from which Snape seems to have /joined/ Dumbledore, but Snape was sent
on his mission to work with Dumbledore /before/ he turned to the good
side.

So, when Snape says '15 years' he probably means 15 years from the
time Voldemort sent me on my mission. Further, it is to Snape benefit
to flaunt that aspect in front of Bellatrix. 

Just a thought.

Steve/bboyminn