Hermione must be stopped/Snape's half truths in "Spinner's End"

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 149616

Magpie:

> Here's my big picture problem with the scenario (besides 
> just feeling like the reasons given for why he takes the 
> vow still don't seem clear enough: The UV is a very 
> important thing to do.  It's life or death.  It's a 
> turning point in Snape's life; no going back. I have 
> a really hard time believing that the motivation behind 
> this is that he's trying to get a minor villain to stop 
> thinking he's a traitor, or find out about Voldemort's 
> latest plan.

houyhnhnm:

Granted making the UV is a perilous, life changing choice .  If Snape 
had had time to consider it, then I would agree with you, but he had 
to make an instantaneous decision. 

I don't agree that Bellatrix is a minor villain.  She is a fanatic 
who has been very close to LV in the past, whether or not she is 
currently on the outs. Among a group of sychophantic followers of a 
sociopath, the ins and outs can trade places on a daily basis. She 
suspects him, rightly I believe, of being a traitor to Voldemort.  
She may not have concrete proof at the time of her confrontation with 
Snape at Spinner's End, but she won't stop digging until she finds 
something she can take to the Dark Lord.  I think Snape is right to 
be afraid of her.

Voldemort's latest plan involves Draco Malfoy.  Therefore it involves 
Hogwarts.  I can't imagine anything that could have a higher priority 
with DDM!Snape.

That's the problem with "Spinner's End".  I don't think there is any 
information in that chapter which tells us which side Snape is on, if 
it is taken as a stand alone.  If I assume (based on other evidence 
in the books) that Snape is DDM and that he is unaware of the exact 
nature of LV's plot involving Draco, then to me all of Snape's 
actions appear consistant with that.  I guess what I'm trying to say 
is that Chapter 2 can be read with any set of assumptions, DDM, ESE, 
LID, or OFH and still make sense and I suspect Rowling did that on 
purpose.  

Magpie:

> If we'd seen Snape taking risk after risk like this 
> and this is the one that finally brought him down, that 
> would reflect on his character, but this is a first.

houyhnhnm:

But he must have been taking risk after risk, whether we've seen it 
or not.  He's been back in his spy role for a little over a year by 
the time of the meeting with Bellatrix and Narcissa.  He is in and 
out of Grimmauld Place all the time, the summer of OotP. He almost 
appears to be DD's (who only shows up three times all summer) second-
in-command.  ([paraphrasing]"*He's* here.  We can start the 
meeting".)  He has to teach Harry Occlumency knowing that LV has 
access to Harry's mind.  Snape has been walking a tightrope for about 
thirteen months.  I doesn't seem surprising to me or to require any 
further explanation that he finally makes a fatal misstep.  After all 
he hasn't read the book.