Who recruited Peter Pettigrew for the Dark Lord?/DD trust in Snape

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 154813

> aussie:
> > My opinion of why:
> > Snape's motive: revenge against the Maunderers by turning one of 
> > their own.
> > Pettigrew's motive: apart from those spoken about above, Snape 
may 
> > have known Peter was an Animagi Rat and if cornered, Snape could 
> > have offered 3 choices - a) AK Peter straight away as a OOTP 
> member; 
> > b) if Peter escaped, expose himas an illegal animagi hunted by 
MOM; 
> > c) join DE and be on the strongest team.
> 
> zgirnius:
> I agree Snape would have had a motive. Means is more problematic. 
> There is really no reason to suppose he knew the Marauders were 
> Animagi, or that Peter was. For one thing, I can't see how he 
would 
> have figured such a thing out after they all left school. And 
while 
> he was IN school, it would seem too good a card not to have played 
> then, to get revenge on them.
>

Alla:

IMO There is a reason to at least suspect that Snape knew that 
Marauders were Animagi. He seems ( to me anyway) to clearly know  
the names on the Marauder Map. 

" "Indeed?" said Snape. His jaw had gone rigid with anger. "You 
think a joke shop could supply him with such a thing? You don't 
think it more likely that he got it directly from the 
manufacturers?" Harry didn't understand what Snape was talking 
about. Nor, apparently,did Lupin."


Of course it is possible that he only knew their nicknames, NOT that 
they were animagi, but I think that there is nothing in canon to 
contradict that he may have known ( how I don't know, but he could 
have figured it out somehow) that Marauders were animagi too and 
that seems to open an interesting can of worms. Like why exactly 
didn't he tell Dumbledore if he knew?

Of course this is speculation built on another speculation, but to 
me it is a speculation that makes sense.


> wynnleaf
<SNIP>
> But Snape is *not* a person unable to control his outward 
emotions. 
> If his actions toward Harry were uncontrollable, then we'd be 
talking
> about a character who would never have been able to pull off being 
a
> double agent for years.  It is just unbelievable that a person 
could
> have such control at conveying exactly what he wants to around
> Voldemort, Dumbledore and whoever else, and be utterly unable to
> control his outward emotions around Harry.

Alla: 
Snape is able to control his emotions? I would like to modify your 
statement and then maybe I will agree.  :) Snape is able to control 
his emotions EXCEPT where Marauders and Harry is concerned. IMO of 
course.

I mean, Snape in Shrieking Shack does not look to me as the person 
who is able to control his emotions and he can be many many times 
justified, the thing is - he does not control his emotions at all.

Snape, who cannot keep James out of his mind even when he is running 
away from Hogwarts and screams "you and your filfy father" looks as 
someone who is absolutely unable to control himself when it comes to 
Potter family. IMO of course.

Wynnleaf: 
> Therefore -- Snape *could* control his actions and *open* hatred of
> Harry if he wanted to or if he felt there was any need to.  
<SNIP>

Alla:

Well, see above. I completely disagree that he can control his 
emotions on the issue of Potters. 

Could it be that Potters are his Achilles heel? I think so. Who 
knows, maybe he was never forced to think about Potters while around 
Dark Lord, maybe he was able to OCCLUDE that well, to 
comparmentalise his hatred, BUT if he is not really faithful to 
Dumbledore, he does not really need to, he may hate the Potters to 
his heart content and still cheerfully serve Voldemort.

James should be the last thing on Snape mind when he runs away and 
he STILL cannot let go IMO.

"You and your filfy father" completely did it away for me with any 
notion that Snape hatred for Harry is just a pretense and that he is 
able to distingush between two Potters , not that I had much doubt 
about it, but that did the trick totally.

I am not specifically replyint to you with this last paragraph, just 
in general.

I understand that you are not arguing that Snape is pretending.



> Magpie:
<SNIP>
 A convuluted explanation 
> after the fact that Snape only acted to protect Harry because 
maybe somebody 
> might have been suspicious if he hadn't to me is like the author 
admitting 
> that she came up with fake scenes to create ambiguity when there 
was none. 
> He's acting not in response to stuff in the book but stuff that 
wasn't 
> written.

Alla:

Why? To me it makes sense that what author had in mind is for us to 
look back when we discover more and more information about character 
and reread it in the new light? Sure, maybe those holes will be 
filled NOT like we expected, but I completely disagree that it would 
be a cheat.

I do not know whether Snape saving Harry was because of completely 
self serving purposes or not. To me Dumbledore indicated quite 
clearly that it was - getting rid of Life debt does seem to be a 
self serving purpose if nothing else to me, BUT   especially in 
light of all things that Snape does later IF one interprets them as 
SNnape not being a noble tortured soul, but the creature of 
different variety makes total sense to me.

Magpie: 
> The end of the series, imo, has to work at least as well as the 
end of 
> PS/SS, which takes into account both Snape's mean behavior and his 
> protecting Harry without fudging on either of them.  That's the 
way JKR has 
> worked in the past as well.

Alla:

YES, if one believes that Snape  does both things sincerely - hates 
Harry and protects him and he very well may be, but if one believes 
that those two things are not showings of conflicting qualities in 
Snape, but one main quality - his self preservation, then we have 
different picture IMO.


JMO,

Alla