Will the Real Severus Snape please step forward?

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 167788

Alla:
> I don't know, dear :) Snape seemed to be rather confident to me 
that Harry got that map straight from manufactures in PoA. Of course 
one may say that he only heard the nicknames of how Marauders called 
each other. But I will go on a limb and **speculate** that his 
greasiness knew much more than we give him credit for.

Ceridwen:
Hee!  Yes, you're right about the map.  Maybe the name "Moony", and 
Lupin's convenient appearance, made it suddenly clear.

But, I'm not dismissing the idea that Snape might have known the 
Marauders' nicknames.  I'm not buying that, by knowing the nicknames, 
he knows the reason for those nicknames.  Goddlefrood asked why Snape 
didn't recognize Scabbers as Wormtail.  That was all I was thinking 
about.

I don't think Snape knew for certain, or if he even suspected, that 
they were Animagi.  And if he knew or suspected, I don't think he 
would have seen them in animal form.  I'm certainly convinced that he 
would not have seen their animal forms often enough to know Scabbers 
as Wormtail and not as another rat altogether, even with the missing 
toe.

And, I don't think Snape knew all of the Death Eaters.  I don't think 
anyone knew all of the Death Eaters.  Wormtail, too, would have been 
a special case, a spy whose identity should be protected from too 
many people knowing.  Not that LV would have thought someone could 
get away with hoodwinking him and be a spy for DD, but for the chance 
that a DE would be captured and give the information to the Ministry 
or the Order.  (Or try to run and hide using that info as a ticket 
into the Ministry or Order)

It doesn't seem that the DEs in Azkaban know that Pettigrew was 
Wormtail.  They didn't seem to know that he was supposed to be dead.  
Bella & Co. were arrested and convicted a while after LV's 
disappearance and Sirius's imprisonment for having killed Pettigrew.  
If they knew that Wormtail was Pettigrew, would they have gnashed 
their teeth over him in prison?  Or would they have thought that he'd 
gotten his just desserts?

If Snape knew that Wormtail was Pettigrew's nickname, and if he was 
reasonably certain that this was the same "Wormtail" who worked for 
LV (given that he was considered important enough to know), then he 
would have seen Pettigrew's death as the end of that particular spy 
or danger to the Order.  I don't think that he would have put 
Scabbers' magically long life down to his being an unregistered 
Animagus.

Ceridwen.