Snape's Messenger Patronus ((was Re: Snape's Dementor lesson

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182616

Potioncat:
> It's not a popular explanation, but I think is one of those moments 
> JKR referred to in which she had painted herself in a corner. I'm not 
> sure if she noticed, though.
> 
> In PoA DD tells Harry that the Order has more efficient means of 
> communication. And JKR confirmed (I think) that the method was 
> Messenger Patronuses. So I think it was pretty clear that JKR was 
> thinking that Snape had sent a Messenger Patronus to 12 GP.  Only, 
> that doesn't work if it would reveal to everyone that Snape loves/is-
> devoted-to Lily.
> 
> I've seen several very good explanations of what Snape may have done 
> rather than send a Patronus (in fanfic form) but I think JKR 
> overlooked this important detail of a problem.
>
Carol responds:

I'm sure you're right that JKR painted herself into a corner. But
here's a thought. Perception depends quite a bit on preconceptions in
the HP books. Harry, for example, besides misunderstanding Snape and
Kreacher and of underestimating Luna and Neville, thinks of the
Thestrals as "terrible" (until he has to rely on them as
transportation to the MoM) and Grawp as brutal and untrainable (yet he
turns out to be quite docile at DD's funeral and even capable of
consoling Hagrid in a clumsy sort of way). There's the whole matter of
Sirius Black "murdering" the Muggles and Pettigrew and "betraying" the
Potters, of Snape "murdering" Dumbledore; even of Harry ostensibly
being the Heir of Slytherin and setting a conjured snake on Justin
Finch-Fletchley. And, of course, "Mad-Eye Moody" being a DE in
disguise in GoF and the "little girls" being Crabbe and Goyle in HBP.
It's not just that appearances can be deceiving; the viewer's or
listener's preconceptions shape their perceptions and their awareness.
Or how about the Muggles, who are oblivious to magic that happens
right in front of them, even without Memory Charms and
Muggle-repelling Charms? ("They don't see nuffink, do they?")

*Dumbledore* knows the meaning of Snape's Patronus because he knows
that Snape loved Lily before GoF, and Snape uses it to show him that
his love has not diminished despite her having been dead for fifteen
or so years. But would the others understand that the doe symbolized
Lily? Harry certainly doesn't know the meaning of, say, Luna's hare
Patronus and or Hermione's otter (I suspect that the otter, as a
playful member of the weasel/mustelid family, represents Ron, but
Harry certainly never draws that conclusion). It's possible that the
Order members (or, I should say, Lupin and Black), while knowing that
Harry's Stag Patronus represents James, don't know that Lily's
Patronus was a doe and consequently don't recognize Snape's Patronus
as representing Lily. Or they see it for the first time when he sends
the messages to 12 GP (first to determine that Sirius is okay and let
them know that Harry has had the vision and again to say that Harry
hasn't returned from the forest and they need to get to the MoM).
Under the circumstances, especially given their knowledge that Snape
hated James and their probable supposition that he disliked Lily as
well, based on the "Mudblood" taunt (memory being selective if it's
not in a Pensieve) and, more important, given the importance of
Snape's messages, they may have paid no attention to the form of his
Patronus. (If they thought about it, they might wonder why his
Patronus was female, but men have never thought it unmanly to be
inspired by a Muse, so they might not question a female protective
spirit, which could represent his mother for all they know, or might
not represent a person at all. Of course, the brightness and purity
and beauty and power of the Patronus might have been a clue to Snape's
motives and loyalties if they'd been looking for one, but they
weren't. (No one, for example, wonders why Kingsley's Patronus is a
lynx when it announces that the Ministry has fallen and Scrimgeour is
dead; it's the message that matters.)

In fact, aside from Lupin's explanation (or was it DD's or Sirius
Black's?--"Sirius" memory failure here) that the Stag Patronus
represents James and Snape's snide remarks about Tonks's new Patronus,
whose significance he clearly understands, I'm not sure that anyone
talks about Patronuses as representing anyone or anything in particular.  

Anyway, I think everything depends on whether Lupin and Black (the
only Order members likely to associate a doe Patronus with Lily) ever
actually saw her Patronus, and, if so, whether they're likely to
notice that Snape has a similar or identical Patronus. Either they
never saw it or they've forgotten it (unlikely, given James) or they
see the similarity as a coincidence and attach no significance to it,
just as other characters, especially Harry, see and hear things and
misinterpret them or attach no significance to them. that would be
especially true if they only see his Patronus at times when the
message is more important than the form of the Patronus, which would
be most of the time.

I do think, though, that during the summers or holidays, especially
the summer between GoF and OoP and the OoP Christmas holiday, that
Snape preferred to appear at 12 GP in person rather than communicate
by Patronus. How he communicated with Dumbledore when DD was away from
the school, as he obviously did or DD would not have known why he
canceled the Occlumency lessons or that he had provided fake
Veritaserum to Umbridge and Snape would not have known that DD would
be coming to 12 GP within minutes of his own second message, I don't know.

Is it a Flint (or painting herself into a corner, as with the
Thestrals that Harry didn't see in GoF despite having watched Cedric
die)? Or is there an official, reasonable, extracanonical explanation
that may appear in the encyclopedia if JKR ever writes it (and if she
recognizes the apparent inconsistency)?

I really don't know. I've attempted to supply a reasonable
explanation, but I'm not attached to it, and I rather think that it's
one of those details JKR just didn't think about. After all, she
thinks that Ron knew about (and apparently saw, given his description
of it) the Hand of Glory that Draco wanted in CoS but his father
refused to buy. 

Carol, who likes to imagine Snape walking into Umbridge's office,
alerted by Pansy Parkinson, and seeing Draco with bats flying all
around his face