The Continuing Tragedy of Severus Snape: Reflections on Books 1-5

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164563

zgirnius wrote:
> Personally, I think Snape may have warned James personally, or 
through Potter, that Voldemort had subverted his Secret Keeper. Peter
was, apparently, the SK for a week, so Voldemort did not act 
immediately, which leaves more time for leaks (hypothetically) to 
have happened. I don't think Snape had specific information about 
Sirius: I think it was more that he knew 1) the Fidelius had been 
cast, and 2) Voldemort was convinced he could find the Potters, and 
deduced 3) Sirius was a traitor, because the whole point of the 
switch was to tell everyone Sirius was the SK.
>
Carol responds:
But how *could* Snape have warned James personally? (And by "Potter,"
do you mean Dumbledore?) Snape wouldn't have been able to find James
after the Fidelius Charm had been cast (and certainly PP would not
have told him the Secret). If he did try to warn him, it must have
been to tell him not to make Black his Secret Keeper. But then James
would have known that Snape was a Death Eater. Would he have believed
that Snape had changed sides and was spying for Dumbledore? I
seriously doubt it. Maybe he could have reported it as a rumor he
heard from his Death Eater friends. But I think it's more likely that
Snape is referring to the warning *Dumbledore* gave James when he
offered himself as Secret Keeper, to which James responded, in
essence, "Thanks, but I trust Sirius with my life. If we have a Secret
Keeper, it will be him." Assuming that Dumbledore shared this
information with Snape, it would explain both Snape's belief that
James was too arrogant not to realize that he was mistaken in Black
and Dumbledore's testimony that Black was the Secret Keeper. If Lily
was present and made clear that she shared James's sentiments,
Dumbledore was doubly convinced.

I really don't think that Snape would have exposed himself to insult
and rejection by confronting James himself. The last thing he'd want
James to know was that he had any contact with Voldemort. And we know
that Black didn't know Snape had been a Death Eater. If James had
known, surely he would have told his best friend and SK. Also,
Dumbledore was trying to protect Snape. The last thing he would have
done is to reveal the identity of his own spy to any Order member,
least of all Snape's Hogwarts enemies (or a potential traitor close to
the Potters).

I think Snape knew only that someone close to the Potters was
revealing information about them to Voldemort and he assumed that the
spy was Black, who had (in his view) tried to murder him when he was
sixteen. His suspicions would have been confirmed when he was "proven"
right by the betrayal and murder of the Potters (he "knew" that the SK
and therefore the traitor was Sirius Black) and the subsequent
"murder" of Peter Pettigrew. I think that Snape cherished his
rightness, and his righteous anger against Sirius Black, for twelve
years, which explains his belief that Black was trying to murder Harry
(seemingly confirmed by the attacks on the Fat Lady and Ron's
bedcurtains), his anger when HRH were "foolish" enough to listen to
werewolf! Lupin, accomplice to the convicted murderer, and his fury
when Black escaped. 

Anyway, I very much doubt that Snape approached James himself. I think
that Dumbledore approached James on Snape's information about an
unknown spy close to the Potters (whom Snape assumed to be Black),
offered himself as SK to prevent an act of treachery by the so-called
friend, and was rejected. But Snape clearly didn't know the identity
of the spy any more than he knew that WPP were Animagi. I think only
the closest inner circle of DEs, or maybe only Bellatrix, knew. After
Voldemort's vaporization, she recruited her most loyal followers to
look for him. She must have told them about Wormtail then, and they
screamed about Wormtail's treachery till exposure to the Dementors
silenced them. If the identity of the spy were common knowledge among
the DEs, Snape would have known it, too. But Voldemort, like
Dumbledore, tells his subordinates only what they need to know, and
the identity of his spy was the last thing he would tell them.

I'm also not sure about any "leaks." It's not clear why Wormtail
didn't act immediately. Maybe he wanted to make himself look
trustworthy for a little while. Maybe he needed to get up the nerve to
betray his friends. Maybe he just didn't have the opportunity because
Black was watching him to keep him safe. PP may have told Voldemort of
the plan before the charm was actually placed, that Black was going to
be the SK, and then gone to him again to reveal that he was the one.
Or maybe he told Voldemort immediately and Voldemort, being
superstitious, wanted to wait until Halloween.

But at any rate, I think only a very few people even knew there was a
Secret Keeper, and of those who did, only the Potters, Sirius Black,
and Pettigrew himself actually knew the Secret--until PP revealed it
to Voldemort. I think that Dumbledore and Snape knew *about* it, but
they certainly were not told the Secret itself or they would have
known who the SK was. And that would have spoiled Peter Pettigrew's
plan to betray his friends.

I agree with most of the last part of your post (that Snape knew that
the Fidelius charm would be cast and that Voldemort was looking for
the Potters based on information that someone close to the Potters had
given him) but I think he "knew" that SB was the Secret Keeper because
DD had told him. Why in the world would the Potters want the Fidelius
Charm to be public knowledge or to endanger their friend Sirius Black
by having the general public, and therefore the DEs, thinking that he
was the Secret Keeper? The whole point of a Fidelius Charm is to keep
a Secret secret. The fewer people who even know that such a charm has
been placed, the safer they will be. (Even Lupin seems only to have
been told of the SK *plan.* He wasn't informed of the switch and
consequently, he wasn't in on the Secret, which explains why he didn't
show up at Godric's Hollow or join Sirius in going after Peter.)

Just why it took so long to cast the spell is unclear since Snape's
information had to be obtained before he joined the Hogwarts staff in
September. Maybe Lily had to study the Charm and practice it before
she could cast it properly? Maybe that's why she needed a second wand?
(See Ollivander's reference to her "first wand" in SS/PS). Or maybe
they wanted to test their friends loyalty to figure out whom they
could trust with the Secret once the spell was cast? Maybe they were
keeping an eye on Lupin? Waiting until the third week of October has
never made sense to me, nor do I see why it's necessary to the plot
(except to enable the Potters to be murdered on Halloween).

Carol, who used to think that Black was the original SK but now thinks
that PP was the only one