JKR's crying at the end of writing DH/ Double agent's death

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 171545

Dana wrote:
<snip>

> In the first part (of the second Wikipedia definition) it is stated 
> that these agents are often used to identify other agents as part of 
> counter-espionage operations. This means that DD as the controlling 
> organization would have wanted Snape to identify the spy in the Order 
> but as we see Snape never identified who the spy was in the first 
> war, with devistating results I might add. 
> 
> So in the stricktest sense of the definition Snape is really working 
> for LV but is pretending to work for DD and his Order. So I can only 
> suggest that if people want to use definitions to proof Snape is DDM 
> then they should first work out that definition to understand what it 
> actually says.  <snip>

Carol responds:

Thanks for the clarification regarding double agents. You've described
Snape as LV and Draco ("He's a double agent, you stupid old man!")
perceive. whether Snape is really, say, a triple agent I won't attempt
to speculate as I'm no authority on spies, but I don't think that the
Wikipedia definition of "double agent" qualifies as evidence against
Snape. It does, however, help to clarify the concept, and again I
thank you.

I want to ask, however, how Snape, who was working for Dumbledore
(according to DD himself) could have identified the spy in the Order
when he wasn't a member of the Order himself. At any rate, he's not in
the photograph of the first Order and Sirius Black, who *was* in the
first Order, seems to have no idea what Snape was doing at the time of
Godric's Hollow. A lot of posters seem to think that "turned spy for
our side" means that he was actually in the Order. My understanding,
which could of course be wrong, is that he was working directly with
and for Dumbledore (as spy or double agent or triple agent or whatever).

Another thing: We don't know that young Snape was officially a spy
when he eavesdropped on Trelawney's interview. He might have been no
more a spy than Harry, who is quite fond of eavesdropping, and been
working in some other capacity (say, potion making) for LV. (I'm not
denying that he was a loyal DE at the time; I'm just not sure when and
for whom he first became a spy.) We really know too little at this
point to sort out exactly what sort of spy he was at any point in
terms of target organization vs. controlling organization. And in the
long run, IMO, the technicalities of his job description matter far
less than where his loyalties lie, which remains one of the chief
mysteries of the series. (I see nothing in the definition of "double
agent" to convince me that he's loyal to anyone but Dumbledore).

Carol, starting to get confused as we seem to have two Danas and two
Catladys on the list