Dumbledore lied to Harry... AGES ago

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 175664

Allie wrote
> 
> <snip> Dumbledore clearly  knew that Snape was protecting Harry out
of love for Lily, and the promise  he made Dumbledore after she died.
We have seen Dumbledore redirect Harry, and lie via omission, but I
can't recall another outright lie like that.  We have NO REASON to
think that Snape felt anything of the  sort.
> 
> Allie (who still worships the old man, but finds this a little  
disappointing
>  
Melissa responded: 
> True, but I'm going to cut the old guy a little slack here.  He  had
promised Snape to never reveal the reason that he  [Snape] agreed to
spy on LV and the deatheaters. Harry wanted/needed  an explanation of
some sort and this juggling of the truth was better than  betraying
Snape's trust.
>  
> And I do think a part (a very small almost invisible part) of Snape
hating/saving Harry was also due to the life debt to James. .no matter
how loath Snape would have been to admit it.    

Carol responds:

I've noticed that many characters, Dumbledore in particular but also
Snape and sometimes Harry, wittingly or unwittingly, tell part of the
truth rather than the whole. Thhey'll give a good reason, a perfectly
true reason, which is nevertheless not the main reason. Dumbledore, as
you say, can't tell Harry how snape feels about Lily, so he tells him
how he feels about James, which Harry is likely to find out about anyway. 

And it's quite possible that Snape *did* feel "even" with James after
saving Harry from Quirrell. "You saved my life, you jerk. Now I've
saved your son's. So there!" That would not mean, of course, that
Snape would stop protecting Harry, only that he had repaid an unwanted
debt of honor. The life debt, if there was one, plays no further part
in the books except in relation to the enmity and misunderstanding
between Snape and MWPP.

I thought the moment that I read that bit that DD was telling a half
truth to conceal something, but I thought that something was Snape's
loyalty to DD, represented by Snape's words to Quirrell about "where
your loyalties lie" (his with DD, Quirrell's with Voldemort, whom both
Snape and DD--and even Hagrid--knew would return). IOW, I was pretty
sure from SS/PS onward that Snape was secretly working with DD against
Voldemort, including protecting Harry, but for some reason, Harry was
not to know exactly what Snape was doing or why. I just never believed
that the reason for the loyalty was Lily.

Carol, who thinks that this particular half-truth is perfectly in
character for Dumbledore, who uses the same tactic with "Tom" in the
battle of the MoM