Gone a while - question about Snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154533

zgirnius:
> I don't buy this theory myself, but as I understand it, the theory 
> says that Snape and Dumbledore deliberately told Voldemort just the 
> first part of the Prophecy to draw Voldemort into a false move (the 
> attack on the One, causing Voldemort to 'mark him as his equal' and 
> creating an antagonist capable of defeating him).

> If Snape had some personal reason for caring whether the Potters 
> lived or died (be it a life debt, feelings for Lily, or a general 
> objection to hurting people he actualy knows as opposed to some 
> abstract couple), he might regret the decision even if at the time
he had agreed it was the right strategic move. Dumbledore insists that 
> Snape had no way of knowing who the couple were when the decision 
> would have been made.
> 
> By the way, if the theory is true, Dumbledore is probably feeling 
> somewhat guilty in this scene himself, and his insistence on Snape's 
> ignorance is excusing his own act, as well. And this is probably
what Dumbledore considered telling Harry, when he instead decided to
end the conversation  by asserting that he trusts Snape completely.
> 
> While his statements about Snape's remorse could still be true, his 
> statements about the overhearing of the prophecy, and who knows it in 
> full, would certainly be false.
>
Carol responds:
I don't agree with the theory, either. (Sorry, Potioncat!) It makes
Dumbledore too culpable, and besides, why would he offer himself as
Secret Keeper if he *wanted* Voldemort to try to thwart the Prophecy
by marking Baby!Harry as the Chosen One? And he told Harry that Snape
was still a Death Eater reporting to his master at that point. I don't
think he would lie to Harry about that, especially when he wants Harry
to trust Snape.

Nor do I think that the Prophecy would have been made as early as
September, as Potioncat suggests. I don't think even a Seer could
predict the "approach" of "one" who hadn't been conceived yet. I think
it would have been made on Halloween night (after the feast), which
would be Harry's conception date if we consider a pregnancy as being
exactly nine months long (as, of course, it wouldn't be in RL, but
this is the Potterverse). Halloween is always a significant date in
the HP books, as is the 31 of other months (Harry was born on July 31,
like JKR herself, and Tom Riddle on December 31.) That date would also
fit the "cold, rainy night" (as, of course, could other dates), and
would fit with the idea that young Snape had no idea who the people
involved in the Prophecy were, as not even Lily herself would know she
was pregnant at that point).

I also find Snape's repentance hard to square with this theory. I
think he came to Dumbledore after Harry's birth, when he knew for sure
that Voldemort was planning to go after the Potters (and possibly the
Longbottoms). His repentance makes sense at that point, which is also,
I suspect, the point at which he began to spy for DD "at great
personal risk." That would make him DD's agent fifteen months before
the Potters' deaths and thirteen months before he began teaching
Potions. He might have applied for the DADA post at that time and been
turned down (too soon to have proven his loyalty and besides, DD knew
the post was cursed) and applied again two months before GH and been
given the newly vacant Potions post instead. (BTW, I think that
Snape's reference in "Spinner's End" to sixteen years of information
on DD is a slip--he'd been working with and for DD for sixteen years,
but only fifteen as a Hogwarts teacher.) But even though he was loyal
to DD and regretted revealing the Prophecy to LV, the remorse didn't
fully kick in until after Godric's Hollow. I don't think he would have
felt that remorse if revealing the partial Prophecy to LV had been
part of a plan between DD and himself.

Carol, who will most assuredly grieve if Snape is killed in Book 7
(and will feel cheated and betrayed if he turns out to be evil)