Did Lily know it was Snape that told Voldemort?

dwalker696 dwalker696 at aol.com
Mon Aug 6 05:38:56 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 174622

Something has been bugging me, and I have read and read through this 
group and other sites, and can't find an answer. Usually I don't get 
caught up in story details; inconsistencies and minor plot details 
don't detract from the real meaning and drive of the books for me. I 
suppose the fact that this issue keeps rather haunting me is just 
evidence of how attached I have become to JKR's characters over the 
years. My questions are: 

Did Lily know that it was her long time and former best friend 
Severus who told the prophecy to Voldemort? Did she die knowing that 
basically Severus was the reason they had to go into hiding, the 
reason their first born son was a potential murder victim of LV's? 
The idea of the pain that would have caused her, knowing it was 
Severus. And I don't think being told that Snape felt so bad about 
it, he turned right around and warned DD would make a mother fearful 
for her child's life feel any better about it. The only thing I can 
find about it is from POA (Fudge: "Not many people are aware that the 
Potters knew You-Know-Who was after them. DD, who was of course 
working tirelessly against K-N-W, had a number of useful spies. One 
of them tipped him off, and he alerted James and Lily at once. He 
advised them to go into hiding.") and then the discussions in OOP 
that 'someone' overheard the prophecy and tattled, and then in HBP 
that Snape was the one who did it. I should think DD would have left 
that detail out when he told the Potters, he had to have known even 
before Snape came begging to protect her that they had been friends, 
but who knows. 
Which leads to: Did Snape know if Lily knew it was he who was the 
spying, tattling scumbag? Much as I can't forgive him for his time 
and actions when aligned with LV, I still feel bad for someone who 
does not get to make amends with someone they love before it is too 
late to ever do so. I mean, talk about regret, not only is he 
responsible for LV killing her, but he also has to live with thinking 
that Lily's last memory of him (the second-to-last most impressing 
memory perhaps being that he called her a mudblood!) was that he had 
betrayed her, to the end result being the death of her entire family. 
It's more fuel to the reasons Snape is so nasty to Harry, I mean, 
everytime he looked at Harry, was he thinking "this kid that should 
have been mine with Lily / this kid I oprhaned bc I basically killed 
my only friend, his mother / this brat son of that SOB James Potter 
who stole my Lily / this kid who is a walking reminder that my best 
friend KNEW that I stabbed her in the back, and I never got to tell 
her I was sorry...."? I am sure the running monologue in Snape's head 
everytime he had to think about Harry Potter was enough to make his 
brain explode. Or his hair greasy, maybe that explains it... 

Donna





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