Spinner's End

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 146028

fuzz876i wrote:
> <snip> While rereading the HBP for the fourth time I caught
something else:  Snape offered to tell Voldemort that Wormtail wanted
more dangerous jobs because Wormtail didn't like having to wait on
Snape but this chapter let us know that Snape really was still a death
eater and not one of Dumbledore's men as thought.


Carol responds:
I don't think we can draw any such definite conclusion from this
interesting tidbit, which is of a piece with the rest of "Spinner's
End" in showing us Snape as he speaks and acts with the Death Eaters,
minus Harry's perspective but still viewed from the outside. IOW,
we're not privy to his thoughts, and we don't know what's real and
what's an act or what his motives are (other than survival and getting
Bella to believe that he's a loyal supporter of LV, which Narcissa
already believes, whether he really is or not).

What this scene shows, IMO, is that Snape (who has clearly given
Voldemort much the same version of events that he gives Bella here)
either has or thinks he has persuaded the Dark Lord that neither his
absence from the graveyard nor his thwarting of Quirrell meant that he
had "left [Voldemort] forever." I personally believe that Snape has
used a combination of truths, half-truths, lies, and strategic
omissions (like his sending the Order to the MoM and his saving DD
from the ring Horcrux), along with highly sophisticated Occlumency, to
persuade Voldemort of his loyalty, which IMO is still to Dumbledore.
(If you're interested in my reasons for thinking Snape is DDM!, see my
post 136474 for my preliminary interpretation of this chapter; some of
my views may have changed, but it presents the general idea:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/136474

See also my infamous post 137961 on the cursed DADA position,
particularly the section on Snape:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/137961)

Regarding the relationship between Snape and Voldemort, Snape tells
Harry during the first Occlumency lesson in OoP: 

"The Dark Lord, for instance, almost always knows when somebody is
lying to him. Only those skilled at Occlumency are able to shut down
those feelings and memories that contradict the lie, and so utter
falsehoods in his presence without detection" (Am. ed. 531).

I'm certain that Snape is speaking from personal experience here: As a
"superb Occlumens" (Lupin's phrase), he almost certainly includes
himself among the very few who can risk death by lying to Voldemort.
Since he is still alive, he has reason to believe that Voldemort at
least provisionally accepts his version of events.

Lucius Malfoy, Voldemort's former righthand man, has failed him and
landed himself in Azkaban. His most loyal supporter (not counting the
soul-sucked Barty Jr.), Bellatrix, is also being punished by rejection
and coldness. Clearly (as Snape makes sure before he proceeds with his
answers to her questions), she is no longer close enough to LV to
question him regarding any holes she might see in Snape's story or any
additions he might make to it for her benefit. That leaves a vacancy
that only the highly talented Snape, having convinced Voldemort of his
loyalty, can fill.

However, as we know, Voldemort trusts no one. Consequently, Wormtail,
ostensibly placed with Snape to assist him, is also expected to spy on
him. Snape's remark about not knowing why Wormtail is listening at
doorways is surely tongue in cheek--he knows perfectly well what
Wormtail is up to--but Bellatrix and Narcissa are too preoccupied with
their own personal agenda to care (and in any case Snape has evidently
prevented Wormtail from eavesdropping in this instance by using an
Impervius Charm with an extra little sting that sends Wormtail
scurrying upstairs). This incident nicely illustrates their
relationship: Snape holds Wormtail in contempt, referring to him in
the third person as "vermin" in front of the Black sisters, and orders
him around; Wormtail resents being treated like a servant and tries to
listen in on Snape's conversations but nevertheless serves the
elf-made wine without poisoning it and leaves the room when he's
ordered to do so. (That Snape puts a spell on the door as Wormtail
leaves shows that he doesn't trust the shifty rat despite this
reluctant obedience.)

What the remark you referred to indicates to me is that Snape is using
psychology on Wormtail. The ironic suggestion that Wormtail might
prefer a more risky assignment and that Snape might recommend such a
change to LV may be an empty threat (much like Snape's threats to
expel Harry and Ron), but Wormtail can't take that chance. For the
moment, until his disloyalty is conclusively proven, Snape is
Voldemort's righthand man, and Wormtail quite clearly doesn't want to
risk his precious life. Nor, apparently, does he want to return to
Voldemort. The change in his appearance since GoF is striking: He's
now nearly a hunchback, clearly from repeated Crucios or some other
form of physical abuse by Voldemort. He has his silver hand, the
reward for restoring Voldemort's body, but now he's essentially
useless. Wormtail dreads returning to him; he'd rather endure Snape's
derision than LV's cruelty.

So neither this remark nor any other evidence in "Spinner's End"
proves that Snape has really gone over to LV in HBP. Bellatrix
certainly doubts it up until the last provision of the Unbreakable Vow
(and even that doesn't prove Snape's disloyalty to DD, only that Snape
is caught in a trap at least partly of his own making). All it proves
is that Wormtail, like Narcissa, knows that Snape has risen to a
position of prominence under Voldemort, who undoubtedly recognizes
Snape's intelligence and other gifts and is in desperate need of
talented servants. Whether Voldemort is convinced of his loyalty (with
Wormtail placed as spy to relieve any nagging doubts) or is simply
using him is unclear. So are Snape's own motives and loyalties, which
even the tower scene does not reveal.

I think Snape's loyalties lie with Dumbledore and that they have done
so since he first began to spy for him "at great personal risk" before
he was accepted as Potions teacher at Hogwarts, which in turn was
before Godric's Hollow. But others think his only loyalty is to
himself, or that he has actually switched his loyalties to Voldemort
(which IMO would place him on a par with a pair of psychotics, Barty
Jr. and Bellatrix Lestrange). We won't know until Book 7 comes out.
But until then, I would argue that Snape's words to Wormtail most
certainly don't prove that he is not Dumbledore's man. (Remember, he
has just prevented a terrible curse from the ring Horcrux from killing
Dumbledore, an odd thing for a loyal servant of Voldemort to do.) And
in the all too likely event that Snape is killed in Book 7, IMO it's
much more likely to be by Voldemort himself, recognizing at last that
Snape is still DD's man, than by anyone on the side of Harry and the
Order.

Carol, noting with approval that JKR left up her website's Christmas
decorations for the Twelve Days of Christmas and took them down for
Epiphany (today), dutifully following tradition (whereas I'm risking
bad luck by taking mine down right now, bad me!)