Were the Longbottom's in Hiding too?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 170168

> Charles:
> My theory on this, and it works for DDM! or ESE! Snape, is that DD
> needed Slughorn at the school. DD was all set to send Snape to LV
full time, and have him make reports by patronus. As the DDA curse
does not necessarily kill, they decide that the most natural way to
accomplish this is by making Snape the DDA teacher until such time as
he can make his way to be with LV full time. The UV, and later
consequences would  be after such decision was made, IMO, so I really
think that it was a way to get Snape out of Hogwarts and into LV's
presence more. <snip>
> 
> Charles, who is impatiently waiting to read JKR's DH, as it will
> finally lay a lot of questions to rest.

Carol responds:

My theory is similar but not identical. For one thing, it assumes
DDM!Snape. First, I think that Snape's supposedly wanting the DADA
position is a cover story. Neither he nor DD wanted Snape to have it
until conditions were right because they knew hew wouldn't be
returning to the school once conditions were right.

IMO, Snape and Dumbledore are a team. As long as Dumbledore is at
Hogwarts, he wants Snape to be there working with him, and there's no
point in Snape's being there if Dumbledore isn't because he's supposed
to be spying on Dumbledore for LV. From the time young Snape is hired,
he uses his skills as Potions master not only in the classroom but
whenever DD needs a potion made, and he's Dumbledore's right-hand man
watching over the kids as well, particularly after Harry comes. Once
Voldemort returns, which they anticipate from at least SS/PS onward
and particularly from GoF onward, things start to change. Snape has to
return to LV as a spy. They know that at some point, he'll have to go
into Voldemort's camp permanently. But Dumbledore waits as long as
possible, even allowing Umbridge to teach DADA rather than giving
Snape the cursed post too soon. Let him teach Potions and Occlumency
and they'll stall Voldemort with the Prophecy orb.

But in HBP, the time has finally come. The WW and Hogwarts are in
crisis. Voldemort is back and no longer focusing on the Prophecy orb.
Dumbledore has suffered a potentially dangerous injury. Snape can't
save his hand; he can only save his life, or at least, slow the
progress of the curse. Draco Malfoy, who wants revenge for his
father's arrest, has become a Death Eater and has been assigned to
kill Dumbledore. In the unlikely event that he succeeds, or the
likelier one that Dumbledore dies from the curse, there will be no
reason for Snape to remain at Hogwarts. He'll have to return to LV and
try to subvert him from there. Meanwhile, Dumbledore really needs
Snape'd DADA expertise to prepare the students for Voldemort's return;
no other teacher has his specific experience with the Dark Arts and
his acquaintance with Dark wizards and their ways. And those skills
will come in handy, too, if students (particularly Draco) succeed in
smuggling Dark artifacts into the school.

Dumbledore also needs a memory from Horace Slughorn, to whom he wants
to extend his protection. Conveniently, Slughorn is Snape's former
Potions teacher and Head of House and can take over for him in both
positions, Potions starting with Harry's sixth year and HoH starting
as soon as the DADA curse inevitably sends Snape from Hogwarts. All
that's needed is for Slughorn to accept the Potions position and Snape
can become the DADA teacher, but he seems already to be acting in that
capacity when Dumbledore goes to him, not Madam Pomfrey, to heal or at
least slow the ring Horcrux curse.

In the past, Dumbledore has relied on Snape's Potions expertise. This
year, for the first time, his DADA expertise takes precedence. They
know that the DADA curse will strike. They almost certainly guess that
it will relate to Draco (and to the Unbreakable Vow once it becomes
part of the picture). But Dumbledore can't afford to place another
incompetent in the crucial DADA position this year. It has to be Snape.

I don't know the extent of their plan. Certainly, they didn't
anticipate the events on the tower. But that Dumbledore wanted and
needed Severus Snape as DADA teacher in this year of crisis I don't
doubt for one moment.

Carol, who thinks there's seldom a simple explanation for anything in
the HP books and that things usually happen as the often unforeseen
consequence of various people's choices and the confluence of
seemingly unrelated situations