What did Snape know, and When did he know it?

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 169396

Mike:

> I was going to respond point by point, but that didn't 
> work so well last time. So instead, let me lay out my 
> theoretical timeline and you all can point out where 
> I'm off base. :)

> 1) Peter Pettigrew starts spying for Voldemort. There 
> are a fair few true DEs that know that Severus Snape 
> is spying for Voldemort. I gotta believe that although 
> Voldie would hold Peter's allegiance close to the vest, 
> he would tell someone. Pettigrew would have a handler, 
> a middleman who took Peter's info to LV. And he probably 
> told more than just that one. He wouldn't want to have 
> to handle Peter personally all the time.

houyhnhnm:

Snape was not spying for Voldemort at the time Peter 
turned traitor.  He was not a member of the original 
Order. He was not yet teaching at Hogwarts. There is 
no clue in the books as to what Snape was doing for 
*Voldemort* a year before GH. He may have been spying 
for Dumbledore by that time, but no one would know 
that except Dumbledore.  

It is plausible that there was a middleman between PP 
and LV, but there is no evidence even to show such was 
the case, let alone who it was.  We have absolutely 
no canon to explain how Peter came to spy for Voldemort.  
Was he kidnapped? Did he approach Voldemort on his own?  
Perhaps he was recruited.  Plausible, but Snape seems a 
very unlikely candidate for recruiter and go-between, 
however, because he was not placed for such a role.  
He was not a member of the Order.  He was not a friend 
of Peter's.  He did not move in the circle of Peter's 
friends.  And they were no longer at school.

Or am I misunderstanding your argument.  Further down, 
in the part I snipped, you seem to be implying that Snape 
only found out Peter was the Secret Keeper after LV's fall.  
Again, where is the evidence, or for that matter, the need 
to bring Snape into it?

Your argument seems to start with the assumption that 
all of Voldemort's followers were in each other confidence.  
But what we know, that LV operated in secrecy, that he 
maintained power by torture, fear, and instilling distrust, 
contradicts that assumption it seems to me.  Furthermore, 
the fact that so many DEs escaped Azkaban by claiming to 
have been imperiused, suggests to me that they were 
keeping low profiles, more likely avoiding one another 
than gathering in each other's houses to conduct post
mortems.  There is Lucius' caution to Draco to speak 
no ill of the Boy-Who-Lived even in a Dark Magic shop 
in Knockturn Alley.  It seems it was not safe to let 
one's hair down even at Borgin and Burkes post VWI.