Snape as "the One"? (Was: A couple of little theories!)

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 162259

> zgirnius:
> I don't see a discrepancy at all. First, it is in retrospect obvious 
> that Dumbledore was actively hiding the identity of the eavesdropper 
> from Harry in OotP. 
(snip)
> 
> OK, if you can agree thus far, here is what Dumbledore actually said:
> 
> > OotP:
> > My - our - one stroke of good fortune was that the eavesdropper was 
> > detected only a short way into the prophecy and thrown from the 
> > building.

> zgirnius again:
> Note the absence of any indication of time in this statement. He was 
> detected, he was thrown out. Immediately? moments later? hours later? 
> Dumbledore doesn't say. He's not lying to Harry, but he is not 
> telling the full story. The full story would be he was caught, he was 
> brought to me, and he was thrown out. But 'he was brought to me' 
> would probably cause even the occasionally unquestioning Harry to ask 
> the question, 'who was he?' While the way it actually was worded, 
> sugests without saying that Dumbledore might not even have seen the 
> eavesdropper.

wynnleaf
I completely agree.  I think that in focusing on some big discrepancy
here, readers are trying to read much more into it -- as in "the two
accounts are so different there must be some Big Hidden Something that
we're not being told."  

Dumbledore *does* lie occasionally after all.  And this isn't really
even a direct lie, it's just leaving out enough detail that Harry gets
the wrong idea -- misdirection, if you will.  And we even have an
excellent reason for *why* Dumbledore would want to misdirect Harry -
in order to keep the conversation away from *who* had heard the
prophecy and taken it to Voldemort.  *That* was the Big Hidden
Something -- that Snape was the one to hear the prophecy and take it
to Voldemort -- and now we and Harry know it.

zgirnius
> Personally, I think the barman chanced on Snape as Snape heard the 
> first part of the prophecy, and pulled him away from the door before 
> he heard the rest. A very short discussion involving protestations of 
> innocence by Snape might have ensued, or a tussle, and then the 
> barman threw open the door to show Dumbledore who had been listening 
> to him. This occured just as Trelawney came out of her prophetic 
> trance, hence her story of feeling funny, and then seeing Snape.
(snip)
> Dumbledore also does not say that he knew THEN how much of the 
> prophecy Snape had heard. He just states, without any explanation, 
> that only the first part was heard. I would guess that this he may 
> have learned later from Snape, after Snape 'returned'.

wynnleaf
Certainly.  Dumbledore only learned later that Voldemort had only
gotten half the prophecy.  By the way, this is another reason for
Dumbledore to trust Snape.  When Snape came back to Dumbledore wanting
 to change sides, and told Dumbledore that he'd only given part of the
prophecy to Voldemort, Dumbledore would have been gradually able, from
Voldemort's actions, to see that Snape had told him the truth about
how much prophecy Voldemort knew.

wynnleaf, who has never quite understood why so many assume the barman
grabbed Snape and ejected him within seconds of seeing him.