replies to many, many, many posts

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 170129


> Catlady:
> > What is the canon that Snape never ratted on his friends? 

> Dana:
> Canon never suggests that he did, it would be an assumption to say 
> that he did. 
<snip>

> Dana:
> For Snape it never had been suggested anything other then him 
spying 
> on LV and DD. 

zgirnius:
The distinction you are making, as I see it, is that Snape spied on 
Dumbledore and Voldemort, but not any of their followers? I find this 
not credible. I believe Dumbledore would be interested in the 
activities of other Death Eaters, and Snape would report on them. 
Even if Snape only reported on Voldemort, this could still constitute 
ratting on friends, because a report on Voldemort might consist 
of "The Dark Lord ordered Evan Rosier to kill Person X in Place Y at 
time Z," which would be more than enough to ensure the arrest of 
Rosier, even though it is a report on Voldemort.

However, the bigger problem I have with this whole idea - what 
information about *Voldemort* has Snape given Dumbledore? See the 
problem? There is none in canon. Dumbledore even manages not to say 
directly that Snape told him how Voldemort had interpreted the 
prophecy (though personally I don't see how Snape could tell 
his 'tale of remorse' without mentioning this fact). All we know is 
that Dumbledore is satisfied that Snape was a spy for the good guys. 
We have no examples of the intelligence he brought on which to hang 
an elaborate distinction like idea that Snape only reported on 
Voldemort, and never on other Death Eaters.

We could conclude from this that Snape never did bring any 
information about anything to the good guys, but that makes 
Dumbledore a complete fool. Or, we could conclude that he must have 
brought more than one piece of potentially useful information, and we 
simply are not being told about it. This is what I believe.

It does not prove Snape is a good guy (the information he brought 
could have been Voldemort-approved, sacrificed for the long-term 
purpose of establishing Snape's credentials with Dumbledore). Or it 
could have been genuine useful information and Snape was willing to 
risk Voldemort's anger for his nfarious (anbd to me, most mysterious)
OFH! purposes. But there has to have been information. 

The idea that some of that information led to the spate of arrests 
and deaths among the Death Eaters known to Karkaroff is a guess, but 
if it did not, that means there must have been *other* information, 
about which we have no canon clues. Sticking with what we know seems 
more reasonable to me.