[HPforGrownups] Snape trying to warn James redux (WAS: Re: Life Debt)

[fair wynn]

No: HPFGUIDX 154225




Carol said
>
>At any rate, here are the words in question, which certainly do not
>state that Snape tried to trick James into switching from loyal Sirius
>to Rat!Pettigrew. What Snape actually says is:
>
>"Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you
>should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well served
>if he'd killed you! You would have died like your father, too arrogant
>to believe you might be mistaken in Black1" (PoA Am. ed. 361).
>
>The implication does seem to be that Snape (or Dumbledore?) warned
>James Potter against Sirius Black (perhaps suggesting that he was the
>traitor who was betraying the Order's secrets to Voldemort), and that
>James didn't listen, whether out of "arrogance" or distrust of Severus
>Snape or certainty that Sirius was his friend (or all of the above).

wynnleaf,
Actually in the Maraurder's Map chapter of POA, Fudge, in the hearing of 
McGonagall who does not contradict him, said that a spy of Dumbledore's had 
"tipped him off."  Later Fudge said Dumbledore offered to be their secret 
keeper, and McGonagall immediately afterward, apparently by way of 
explanation for Dumbledore's offer, adds that Dumbledore thought someone on 
the Order's side was giving info to Voldemort about the Potters.  The strong 
implication is that Dumbledore offered to be the secret keeper because he 
was afriad that the Potters would choose a secret keeper who was really an 
informant.  Readers often assume that Dumbledore suspected one of the 
Maraurders due to a spy's information.  And readers also assume that the spy 
was Snape.

But such an assumption does make sense, particularly in light of Snape's 
fury at James' decision to trust one of his friends as secret keeper.  
First, it means that Snape almost certainly knew that there was suspicion 
that one of the Maruaders was an informant for Voldemort.  For Snape to know 
that, it's likely he was the spy that brought that info.  The fact that he's 
so furious over James' decision to disregard that warning gives credence to 
the notion that Snape brought the information and that it was truly brought 
to get James to avoid using a traitor as an informant -- not for some sort 
of evil reason.  Ah, please note that I didn't say it *proves* anything.

wynnleaf

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