HBP post DH look Chapters 1-2.

[tommy_m_riddle]

No: HPFGUIDX 184319

> Zara:
> We see Snape risk exposure 
> or death on at least two occasions I can think of that don't really 
> have much to do with his primary missions. (I use the plural, because 
> what that is, actually changes...) First, going back as a spy. This is 
> useful to Albus and the Order, but I do not see its immediate 
> applicability to protecting Harry. If Snape had turned up dead at the 
> start of OotP, would he not be the same failure? The second example is 
> in the Seven Potters raid in DH, when he takes the risk of trying to 
> curse a fellow DE to prevent the killing of Lupin.

Sarah:
Yes, if Voldemort killed Snape at the end of GOF that would have been
failure.  But as we see in Spinner's End, Snape is very good at giving
reasons for all of his actions, and working all these years to
preserve his role as "Voldemort's spy," should his services be needed
again.  He explains all this for Bellatrix's benefit in Spinner's End,
and I'm willing to believe that part is not far off from what he told
Voldemort in GOF.  Maybe Voldemort wanted to kill him at first.  Snape
is good at talking his way out of these things, and explaining his
value to Voldemort.  Still, Snape looked a little shaky there at the
end of GOF.

The Order of the Phoenix's real goal is much the same as Harry's goal.
 It's just that most of the OOTP don't know how to execute most of
their goal.  They're on a "need to know basis," just like the Death
Eaters are supposed to be.  So by spying for Dumbledore and the OOTP,
Snape has always been helping Harry.

The Seven Potters thing, I have no real response to, except that maybe
there was so much action that Snape just reckoned he could get away
with it.  If I were him, I would have just let the other guy kill
Lupin and then chalked it up to collateral damage.  It's not like
Lupin did anything for the rest of the book besides annoy me
repeatedly and then die offscreen.