Snape's half truths in "Spinner's End"

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 149506

Carol:

> The other is Snape's assertion that he tried to 
> thwart the "unworthy" Quirrell without realizing that 
> LV was inside Quirrell's head. The lie (or half-truth) 
> that Snape thought LV was dead would be necessary to 
> make the half-truth about thwarting Quirrell without 
> knowing he was possessed believable. But Snape is a 
> Legilimens, and he could have read Quirrell's mind 
> fairly easily without detection.

houyhnhnm:

If Snape can legilimence anyone at anytime, that would make him nearly
all-knowing, and I don't think such an omniscience squares with his
actions throughout the books.

If only *we* knew What Snape Knew and When He Knew It, we would be
close to unravelling his character.  Did Snape know or suspect, in
PS/SS, that Quirrell was working for Voldemort?  What did he know of
Lucius Malfoy's plot to discredit Arthur Weasley in CoS?  When did he
first begin to suspect the connection between Harry and LV? Did he
suspect Mad-Eye Moody of being a Death Eater in disguise in GoF?

I have been back through all three books with these questions in mind
and cannot find any definitive proof.  PoA is the only book in which
the readers are informed of precisely what it is that Snape suspects
and he turns out to be wrong (or not if Pippin is correct).  I find
that suspicious in and of itself.

I think that Snape probably avoids telling outright lies if he can
make the truth serve the purpose of a lie, because he is less open to
detection that way.  So he can tell Bellatrix that he didn't *know*
Voldemort was the one after the Stone, because he didn't, but I find
it hard to believe that he didn't *suspect* that something was up.

First there is the incident at the start-of-term banquet when he is
staring at Harry (I feel sure he is trying to legilimence Harry here.
 There is no other occasion when Harry's scar hurts in Quirrell's
presence), while sitting next to Quirrell, and he sees  Harry clap his
hand to his forehead.  He may not have known what it meant at the
time, but surely it aroused his suspicion.

Then there is the fact that Harry was in danger from Quirrell, which
must surely have given his imagination a nudge.

Finally there is the Thing in the Forbidden Forest drinking unicorn
blood, which Draco saw with his own eyes.  I find it hard to believe
that Snape didn't get wind of that. Unworthy Quirrell may have been
seeking infinite riches and immortality for himself alone, but,
surely, only someone who was barely alive would be willing to accept
the dire consequences of killing a unicorn.  Snape had somewhere
around a week to act on the information while all of Hogwarts was
preoccupied with upcoming examinations, but he didn't.

Maybe he didn't want to know for sure that Voldemort was back.  Lately
I have been playing around with the idea that an inability to commit
to certainty, rather than hubris,  may be Snape's tragic flaw.  He
prefers for his situation to remain absolutely fluid at all times,
allowing him complete freedom to act in any direction, a watery
characteristic-- Piscean, in point of fact--and therefore a Slytherin
one.  Otherwise how can you explain why such a clever fellow is never
the one to solve the mystery?