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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 170654

> Julie wrote:
> I don't think the Prophecy is actually clear enough for Snape to
have known he was delivering an unnamed couple and their baby to
Voldemort. *Especially* if Snape only heard part of it. Not only is
the first part not completely clear on whether this person who
"approaches" is already in existence or not, the "either must die at
the hand of the other" doesn't come until the second part of the Prophecy.
> 
> Thus Snape's thought process might have anything from 1. "The Dark
Lord will no doubt ignore this, since prophecies are idiotic anyway,
but I'll stay in his good graces since he sent me specifically to spy"
to 2. "Hmm, someone may in the future be a threat to the Dark Lord, so
this information will help him come up with a game plan to protect
himself *should* that threat materialize" to 3. "This must refer to a
baby who will soon be born, and no doubt the Dark Lord will believe
this Prophecy fully and will want to immediately kill this helpless
baby and his family instead of waiting around to see if the kid grows
up to be some sort of threat. Not that he could ever kill the Dark
Lord...AS IF!!!" (Snape only heard part of the Prophecy as far as we
know, remember).
> 
> Which thought is more likely from 20(?) year old Severus Snape,
follower of Lord Voldemort? I suspect Thought One is at least as
likely if not more likely than Thought Three. Because Snape is little
more than a teenager, he still sees the world and everyone in it from
his perspective--"If *I* think seers and prophecies are for fools,
then everyone else must think so too.) And even if he thinks Voldemort
might buy it, he could still reasonably suspect Voldemort would want
to "monitor" the situation to see if any child starts to show some
incipient power that could be a threat to him. 
> 
> Which leads me to the most likely possibility, that Snape thought
Voldemort would file away the information for a later date, perhaps
with a plan to neutralize this potential threat to his power should it
ever appear. This would be true especially if Snape didn't hear the
part about "either must die at the hand of the other for neither can
live while the other survives." Without that part, the Prophecy is not
a death threat but a threat that Voldemort might be deposed from his
seat of power. <snip>
> 
> The point is that Snape hearing part of the Prophecy and reporting
it to his boss as it were, does not indicate that he knew or even
suspected that Voldemort would immediately hunt down and kill a baby
who couldn't have yet begun to manifest any power. (And, yes, we know
that Voldemort is a paranoid who will preemptively and coldly murder a
baby at the mere sign of a potential threat--and I think the older and
far more experienced Snape we either loathe or love--or both!--would
expect the same thing--I don't think the younger and inexperienced
Snape understood Voldemort's way of thinking at all, until it was too
late of course.)
> 
> Julie, who also figures Thought Three fits well with a genuinely
remorseful DDM!Snape, *if* that is who Snape turns out to be.
>
Carol responds:
I agree that we don't know young Snape's thought process, but we do
have a clue in Harry's. Even knowing the whole Prophecy and knowing
that it applies to a baby, he still thinks that Voldemort would or
should logically have waited to see which baby was the greater threat.
Snape, being logical, would most likely have thought the same thing.
That it did not occur to young Snape that Voldemort would find out who
the baby was (or might be since it turns out to fit two possible
children) and hunt him down, along with his parents if they resisted
or got in the way (killing Lily wasn't part of the plan) is indicated
by his going to Dumbledore when he found out "how Voldemort
interpreted the Prophecy." Which means, quite simply, that Voldemort's
interpretation differed from his own, and that interpretation alarmed
him sufficiently, indeed, caused him such remorse for delivering the
Prophecy to Voldemort that he changed sides and began to spy for
Dumbledore "at great personal risk."

If his interpretation was the same as Voldemort's and he anticipated
the death of a baby and its parents from the outset, I see no reason
for remorse. And just the fact that it referred to people he knew
(DD's version of the story) can't be all there is (although it's
sufficiently vague to include the Longbottoms) because, as Harry and
DD both know, he hated and still hates James Potter.

So I think it's best not to assume that we know what Snape knew or
thought. Prophecies are deliberately vague and aren't always
fulfilled. Being logical (and, yes, twenty), he may well have thought
that they were bunk and assumed that the Great Lord Voldemort thought
likewise. Within nine months, perhaps less, he found out otherwise.

Essentially, I think that while he *could* have been vaguely aware of
danger to an unknown baby and its family, I think he was more likely
thinking of danger *from* that baby when it grew up and warning LV to
be on the lookout for someone with "the power to defeat [him]." That
Voldemort would take a preemptive strike against a baby while it was
still a baby probably never entered Snape's mind, not being a Dark
Lord himself. Indeed, it seems to have taken some time to enter
*Voldemort's* mind, or he'd have tried to kill Harry as soon as he
found out which baby (or babies) had been born at the end of July
rather than waiting fifteen months. (The part of the Prophecy that
Voldie heard doesn't even specify a boy. It could have been a girl for
all they knew.)

Carol, who thinks that hindsight will not be 20/20 till we've read the
last book, and even then, we may not know how young Snape, as opposed
to Voldemort, interpreted the partial Prophecy