Justice to Snape WAS: Re: Werewolves? There Wolves!

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 170572

Alla wrote:
> 
> No, I am saying that I am not convinced that Snape was spying for 
> Dumbledore at great personal risk AND accordingly so far I am not 
> convinced that this was sufficient punishment for what he did, since 
> I do not know what exactly he did for Dumbledore and whether it was 
> for Dumbledore or for Voldemort or for Snape.

Carol:
I don't think that his spying at great personal risk (which, to me,
suggests risk of death if Voldemort found out) was ever intended as
punishment. It's more Snape's attempt to *atone for* revealing the
Prophecy to Voldemort. If he's DDM!, he's trying to undo the damage.
Unfortunately, the effort is in vain because Pettigrew reveals the
Secret to Voldemort. (I don't think he's ESE! and OFH!Snape going to
Dumbledore makes no sense to me since Voldemort was winning at that
point.)

> Alla:
> 
> Well, not to me. Actually scratch that - if I will **see** that
Snape is living with guilt indeed, not hear through second party word
that he is, I may revise my opinion.

Carol:
I also want to see (hear) from Snape himself directly. Not that I
doubt his repentance or remorse or loyalties, only that no second-hand
account will be as satisfying or convincing as Snape telling his own
story (a la Sirius Black) and having Harry believe him.
> 
Alla: 
> Right now Dumbledore's *greatest remorse* is countered by Snape's 
> spinned him a  tale of the deepest remorse in my mind. <snip>

Carol:
Well, yes. But Snape can hardly tell Bellatrix (or Voldemort, to whom
he must have told essentially the same version of events) that his
remorse was genuine, could he? One or the other has to be false. and
the gaps in Snape's version of events to Bellatrix (no mention of what
caused DD's "serious injury," much less that Snape himself prevented
it from being immediately fatal; no mention that Snape sent the Order
to the MoM, etc.) indicates that he's at the very least concealing
information and probably twisting the truth much as Rita Skeeter does
to make himself look as loyal to Voldemort as possible, just as he
does later with Draco (to whom he mentions only part of the
Unbreakable Vow and for whom he is posing, IMO, as loyal to Voldemort,
though "your master" rather than "our master" is an interesting slip).

Obviously, if Snape is Dumbledore's man, he's not going to admit that
to Bellatrix (or Narcissa). That would be suicide. The bit about DD's
protection being all that was keeping him out of Azkaban is patently
false; Crouch Sr. says that the Wizengamot pardoned Snape (and DD
makes clear that the reason was his spying for "our side"--reporting
not to the Order but to DD himself, I think--"at great personal risk"
before Godric's Hollow, and presumably before he began teaching at
Hogwarts, where the risk would be considerably lessened). What I'm
trying to say is that there was no longer any danger of his being sent
to Azkaban once he had been pardoned, so that part of his story to
Bellatrix is a complete lie. Also, he tells Bellatrix that he "spun
him [DD] a tale of deepest remorse when I joined his staff, fresh from
my Death Eater days" (HBP Am. ed. 31), but in fact, the tale of
remorse has to have been told some time before that, when Snape first
learned how Voldemort interpreted the Prophecy and before he began
spying, which in turn has to be some time before he began teaching if
any risk was involved, perhaps soon after Harry's and Neville's
births. And "fresh from my Death Eater days" makes no sense because
when Snape started teaching, he was still a Death Eater (though not a
loyal one if DD is right). Voldemort was still embodied and well on
his way to power. IOW, Snape seems to me to be lying to Bellatrix,
giving her the same cover stories he has prepared for Voldemort.

While Snape's version of events here matches well with Harry's version
in the hospital wing, in which Snape's tale of remorse follows the
Potters' deaths, it doesn't match what Dumbledore actually said, both
in the Pensievein GoF and directly to Harry in HBP.

At any rate, of course the story Snape tells Bellatrix (and Voldemort)
doesn't match Dumbledore's version of events. If it did, Snape would
be a dead man. So either he's giving Bellatrix and Voldemort an edited
and altered version of events, or he's been fooling Dumbledore for
fifteen years. (Snape says "sixteen," but either that's a slip for the
time he began spying for DD, or JKR's difficulties with math are
manifesting themselves again.)

Carol, who doesn't take anything that Snape says to Bellatrix at face
value but thinks that the hoodwinking of Voldemort, which he suggests
is impossible, is anything but