Dumbledore Does Lie - Sort Of/Why didn't Snape turn Harry in?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 159231

Carol earlier:
> > I intend to bring up a question along these lines in the chapter
discussion for "Sectumsempra" in November, but for now I'll point  out
that Snape not only didn't tell Slughorn that Harry was cheating, he
didn't expel him, or request his expulsion, for using a potentially
deadly spell. I can only conclude that Snape is trying to help Harry
somehow, to keep him safely in school, for one thing, but he may also
want him to use the book. (Note that he didn't identify himself as the
author of the spells and potions hints at that point, as he could have
done.) Maybe if Harry had told him the truth about where he found the
> spell, Snape would have told the truth in return?
> > 
> > Seems like yet another missed opportunity for understanding to me.
> 
> 
Alla responded:
> 
> Eh, going back to speculating, if Snape indeed wants to hide the 
> book from Dumbledore then **of course** he would not complain about 
> Harry cheating, because erm... then he would reveal himself as the 
> author and if there is something in the book that is damaging to 
> him, then why would he want to do it?
> 
> Seems like totally possible self-serving reason to me. Now, not 
> saying that another **noble** reason is not possible, but just don't 
> see the fact that Snape did not tell anybody about Harry cheating as 
> definite proof that he was helping Harry.
> 
Carol again:
I din't say that it was proof (all proof is definite). I just
suggested that Snape might be protecting Harry rather than himself. If
it were only a matter of the book, I'd be more hesitant to draw even a
tentative conclusion, but he could have expelled Harry, or at least
suggested expulsion, and he didn't. No one would have known that the
spell was his, so why didn't he suggest it? And there's no need for
Slughorn to know that Sectumsempra is his own spell; all he needs to
do is show him is force Harry to bring him his own book, show the book
to Slughorn, including the notes for one or two potions that Harry
would have made in that class (Slughorn would possibly recognize the
handwriting and certainly have no reason to doubt the word of a man he
knows to be a potions genius that the notes were his own) and yet he
doesn't do so. He could have proven to slughorn that Harry was "a liar
and a cheat," to use his own words, but he didn't do so.

I have more to say on the subject, but this is enough for now.
> 

Alla (to Pippin):
> 
> Thanks for clarifying, but where do you get that if Dumbledore had 
> evidence he would have moved on it? Didn't he claim that he knew 
> plenty about Draco's activities, etc and as we debated earlier he 
> sure did not do anything when Ron and Katie were hurt?
> 
> I mean, Harry of course forgot to tell him that, canon is clear, I 
> just don't see it as a something that would have changed anything.
> 
> IMO Dumbledore was set on leaving the school and he did not change 
> his mind after learning that Draco done the job ( fixing the 
> cabinet), that is what crucial isn't it in order for the attack to 
> start, not whether Draco pinched Trelawney? IMO of course. <snip>

Carol responds:
I agree with Pippin. Harry prevented Trelawney from telling her story.
Dumbledore would have had to stop what he was doing and deal with an
assault on a teacher. As it is, Harry was upset about Snape's being
the eavesdropper and implied that he was helping Draco do something in
the RoR, which Dumbledore knew to be false. The unfortunate
coincidence of finding out who the eavesdropper was at that moment
caused Harry to forget a matter more important to the matter at hand,
that Draco had kicked Trelawney out. That, more than the whoop, proved
that Draco was up to something dangerous.

At any rate, it seems to me that Harry handled the situation rather
badly. His anger at Snape, which related to an incident that happened
a long time before, affected his behavior in the present and his
attitude may have prevented Dumbledore from taking him seriously.

Carol, hoping that this post is coherent because she's being
distracted by two visitning kids