snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 172379

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mark_anders01"
<mark_anders01 at ...> wrote:
>
> Could somebody actually tell what the Order tangibly gained from
Snape being so close to Voldemort for all those years? He risked and
lost so much but I cannot recall one specific piece of information
that he was able to give to the Order.
<snip>
>
Carol responds:

In OoP, we see him about to give a report supplemented or illustrated
by a dozen rolls of parchment. His report is both highly anticipated
and well-received. (half the Order surrounds him, talking excitedly,
as he leaves). The rolls of parchent are top secret, and Bill quickly
evanescoes them. We're limited by Harry's pov and by JKR's desire to
keep Snape's motives and loyalties mysterious for as long as possible.
However, since the book is largely about the conspiracy to keep
Voldemort focused on the Prophecy orb (and at the same time, keep
Harry ignorant of it), it seems to me almost certain that Snape has
somehow copied the building plans that Voldemort is using in his plan
to break into the (highly mysterious) Department of Mysteries. I'm
quite sure that the Unspeakables don't just leave such documents lying
around. Maybe LV or Lucius Malfoy obtained them from the Imperiused
Bode and Snape found and magically duplicated them--at great personal
risk.

At any rate, it's clear that he does provide the Order with important
information, and since part of that information is the plan of a
building, it makes sense to me that it would be the plan of the
Department of Mysteries and, specifically, the Hall of Prophecy.

Beyond that, given the limitations that JKR imposes on us and her
desire to make him seem sinister, it's impossible to know what other
information he provided. That he did so, and that the Order members
know it and are (with the exception of Sirius Black) grateful seems
clear from their reactions in that early chapter of OoP.

During the school year, we see him reporting to Dumbledore personally
on a number of occasions without necessarily knowing what it's about.
I'm guessing that the instances when he actually risks his life to
obtain information occur mostly during the summer or Christmas
holidays from the end of GoF to the Christmas holiday in HBP. The rest
of the time he's at Hogwarts, ostensibly spying on Dumbledore. And we
see him risking his life again in DH by providing information provided
by his source (Dumbledore's portrait? Mundungus?) but omitting the key
point. It seems likely that he reports back to Dumbledore (or in DH,
Dumbledore's portrait) with a summary of each DE meeting or encounter
with Voldemort. He certainly told Dumbledore (and only Dumbledore)
about LV's plan to have Draco try to murder DD (and his expectation
that Draco would fail).

Carol, glad to have real canon discussion among the reactions to DH