Catch me up

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 167573

vexingconfection:

> Does anyone remember in the Goblet of Fire how Snape 
> reacted when Harry began to tell Fudge who the Death 
> Eaters were? He took a step forward and appeared to be 
> threatening or threatened (to me)-would that change 
> anyone's mind as to if he were bad or good or am I 
> grasping at straws?

houyhnhnm:

****************
Snape made a sudden movement, but as Harry looked at 
him, Snape's eyes flew back to Fudge. (p. 706, Am. ed.)
****************

That's pretty ambiguous.  It sounds as if Harry wasn't 
looking at Snape directly, but simply became aware of 
some kind of movement out of the corner of his eye.  
A startle response, perhaps, or a sudden turning of 
the head to look at Harry, something like the twitch 
in "Spinner's End".  It doesn't sound as if Snape took 
a step or moved his whole body in any way.

That sentence could generate a myriad of interpretations.  
Mine, in the light of two books' worth of subsequent 
action, is that Snape, for all of his sychophancy toward 
Lucius Malfoy over the years, had never managed to break 
through Lucius' claim of having been put under the Imperius 
curse, and that Snape truly didn't know which way Lucius 
would jump when Voldemort returned to power.