[HPforGrownups] Re: JKR has updated her site today -- WEBSITE SPOILER!

[Phil Vlasak]

No: HPFGUIDX 158292

Phil wrote:
> I see an interesting parallel to the astronomy tower death.
> James gave DD the cloak then Snape told him that something was going
to happen at Godric's Hollow.
> DD gave him the cloak and he went there to warn James of what was to
happen.  James saw Snape near the house but Snape did not know it.
> James came out to confront Snape, and Snape told him that Peter told
LV where James and Lily were and that they should go somewhere else.
>    James didn't believe him and cast a Petrificus Totalus spell on
Snape who was still under the Invisibility Cloak 
> Then LV and PP showed up and LV told PP to kill James. He couldn't
so LV did it himself.
> Snape watched it all standing there, imprisoned by the spell. When
James died, the spell broke and Snape sent a Patronus to DD to tell
him what happened.
> 
> Phil who thinks this might work.

Carol responds:
I'll be as concise as possible here in explaining why this scenario
disturbs me. It's supposed to be DDM!Snape, right? But if your idea
(and that of the others who are proposing this idea) is correct, then
Snape knew that Peter was the Secret Keeper.

If we take PoA at face value, however, Snape didn't know who the
spy/Secret Keeper was. He believed that it was Sirius Black and worked
all through the book to keep Harry safe from him. If we allow a
reading in which Snape knew that Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper, not
only is he not protecting Harry, he's trying to send a man he knows to
be innocent back to Azkaban or to the Dementors. Not only that, but
he's known for twelve years that Black was innocent but said nothing
and allowed Black to go to prison for murders he didn't commit (unless
he know that Black wasn't the Secret Keeper but thinks that he killed
Peter and the Muggles and is therefore a murderer but not the betrayer
of the Potters).

If Snape went to Godric's Hollow to warn the Potters, he'd have had to
know that Peter was the SK or he wouldn't know that they were in
Godric's Hollow. But I can't imagine Peter telling him the secret, and
he would surely have told Dumbledore if he knew. The only possible way
this would work would be if Peter were polyjuiced as Sirius, but
Sirius is even less likely to tell Snape where the Potters were hiding.

My own belief, based on Snape's statement about James Potter's
arrogance in the Shrieking Shack scene in PoA, is that Snape tried to
warn Potter *before* the Fidelius Charm was in place, that he believed
Sirius Black to be the spy and James refused to listen to him
(rightly, as it turned out). I don't think that Snape knew who the spy
was; Voldemort would have kept his identity a secret and informed only
those closest to him. I think Bellatrix knew but no one else did until
she persuaded the Lestrange brothers and Barty Jr., the most loyal DEs
she knew next to herself, to go with her to the Longbottoms. *They*
knew Wormtail's identity and talked about it in Azkaban. That doesn't
mean that Snape did.

If someone who likes this Invisibility Cloak theory *and* believes
that Snape is DDM can reconcile these conflicting elements for me,
please do so. Until then, I believe Snape's statement to Bellatrix
that he was at Hogwarts when the events at Godric's Hollow happened. I
also believe Dumbledore's statement that the cloak was in his
possession *before* James Potter's death. The Snape/IC theory requires
a distortion of canon and imagining of circumstances that a
straightforward reading does not require, and as I said, I find it
impossible to reconcile the theory with a Snape who is not only loyal
to Dumbledore but deserving of his trust.

Carol, who thinks that Snape's role in the GH story consists mainly of
showing Dumbledore his fading Dark Mark, proving that Voldemort was
powerless but not dead
justcarol67 
Now Phil again:
OK, I added PP in to match the tower episode.
LV could have told Snape that he knows of the location of the Potters since the secret keeper told him without naming him.
This way Snape could have thought it was still Sirius.
It could still go down the same way with Snape not knowing that the rat that was with LV was Peter.
This would then eliminate the parallel of two people being unable to kill.
 Phil revising his theory frantically.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]