Another Snape thread

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 151915

Carol [from a fantastic post, which zgirnius & SSSusan snip down to 
the final question]:
> > Ideas, anyone? What do you think Snape will be up to, mostly off 
> > page, in Book 7? Surely all those revelations about him in HBP 
> > don't lead to a dead end on the tower.
 
zgirnius:
> First, I think your suggestion of 'faking' crimes could be an 
> option, but it owuld be hard to do if Snape were part of (in 
> command of) a group. An alternative way out might be to leak the 
> information about the raid in advance to the Order.

SSSusan:
I agree that I don't think Snape will be faking crimes -- seems 
rather hard to pull off and hard to "take credit for" to Order 
members.  I like the idea of an advance tip-off of a raid or 
attack.  Truthfully, I think such an action would mean Voldy *would* 
FINALLY be on to him, though, so I think it would have to be 
somewhere pretty far into the book/close to the conclusion -- or, 
alternatively, close to a revelation to the Order that Snape **is** 
still DDM.


zgirnius:
> I can see ways around the problem of being believed. First, I have 
> seen a suggestion somewhere online (maybe even here!) that Snape's 
> Patronus might change to a Phoenix. Since people in the Order 
> would know thay was Dumbledore's Patronus, they might believe a 
> message such a Patronus brought. Alternatively, where did Fawkes 
> go? I bet oif he brought a message, it would be taken seriously...

SSSusan:
Yep, I'd seen the suggestion of a phoenix patronus, too, but hadn't 
thought of Fawkes himself carrying a message. I think the latter 
would be *much* more effective than the former, which might just 
seem like a trick (and a horribly disrespectful one!) to Order 
members.  I think one of these options, though, *following* what 
zgirnius first suggested -- a tip-off which protects the Order from 
attack -- might be enough for Snape to get a listen, at least from 
some Order members.


zgirnius:
> Personally I doubt the events of the Tower were part of a worked 
> out plan. But if they were, Dumbledore would have seen the problem 
> just as you and I do. He would have shared this part of the plan 
> with someone, and so Snape would have a secret contact within the 
> Order. (If this scenario holds, I vote for Aberforth as the 
> contact).

SSSusan:
Another excellent possibility.  Aberforth will certainly (he will, 
right??) have a role in Book 7, and I think most of us are expecting 
it to pertain somehow to information about Albus.


zgirnius:
> I can also see one duty Voldemort might assign Snape instead of 
> killing Muggles (or whoever). I think it is possible he might be 
> getting antsy about his Horcruxes....
> He might have Snape do something to protect one of the other 
> Horcruxes.

SSSusan:
zgirnius, you're on a roll -- so many great ideas!  

If Snape-as-horcrux-protector were to happen, it would provide yet 
another possibility for Snape to assist Harry & the Order and thus, 
eventually, to prove his loyalty to DDM.  I seriously doubt Harry 
would be very inclined to believe anything Snape simply *says* (in 
person or via a messenger), but combine it with some significant 
*action* that 1) assists the Order, and 2) clearly risks blowing 
Snape's cover to Voldy, and I can see many Order members being 
convinced.  Might take Harry a tad longer. ;-)


zgirnius:
> I don't have any ideas about his healing abilities. But I wonder 
> about his alternative way to deal with Dementors. Is this 
> something Voldemort knows about/could use? Or will it come up in 
> some other way?

SSSusan:
Both are interesting possibilities.  I can't quite imagine JKR 
tossing in that un-explained bit about Harry & Snape disagreeing on 
the best way to handle Dementors if it's not going to resurface, but 
I've no idea how.  Another healing episode from Snape?  It was 
certainly a *fascinating* scene when he healed Draco in HBP, but I'm 
not convinced it'll happen again.  If it does, I'm inclined to think 
it'll involve a Weasley, Hermione, Neville or Harry himself.

Siriusly Snapey Susan