Secrets (Long) OLD POST REPOST

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186501

jkoney wrote:
> I am saying that Snape along with everyone else didn't investigate the matter and thought (not knew) that Sirius was guilty.
> 
> If Snape is as distraught as he is shown, I would think he would like to know for sure. He has contacts among the DE's, he could bring it up either directly or in a roundabout way to see who knew what.
> 
> The difference is in the degree of certainty. I may believe in UFO's based on the evidence that other people present. But if I'm driving down a country road and there's one in the middle of the road and they take me inside the ship, I would know that they exist not just believe they do.

Carol responds:
Considering that Sirius Black apparently blew up a street, killing twelve Muggles and his supposedly innocent friend, leaving nothing but a finger and left the scene laughing like a maniac (well-known "facts" that even Stan Shunpike was familiar with) and that Dumbledore himself had testified that Black was the Secret Keeper, I see no reason why Snape would want or need to investigate further.

Nor do I think that many DEs knew the identity of Voldemort's Order spy. Bellatrix, coming to Azkaban some months after the Potters' murder, screams about "Wormtail," and perhaps the Lestrange brothers do, too (Barty Jr. more likely screams that he's innocent and quickly succumbs to the Dementors). That doesn't necessarily mean that they knew who Wormtail was, and other DEs might not even have heard the nickname "Wormtail." As Karkaroff says at his hearing, Voldemort kept the identity of many of his DEs secret. It makes sense that the real name of a spy and traitor who was also the friend of the people Voldemort was most eager to kill would be kept as secret as possible, just as Snape's role as spy for Dumbledore was known only to the Wizengamot and not to the Order (or to that busybody, Rita Skeeter, who would have publicized it to the whole WW).

At any rate, canon indicates that Snape did not know the identity of the spy despite suspecting the identity of the makers of the Marauder's Map (for "men" who knew his identity and insulted him? who else could they be?), and, for the reasons given in my first paragraph, he had no reason to investigate it further.

Just as Harry "knew" in DH that Snape had treacherously murdered Dumbledore and wanted revenge, Snape "knew" that Sirius Black had betrayed Lily Potter to her death--and wanted revenge.

Carol, who thinks that Snape and Harry had a great deal in common, as Harry must have subconsciously realized after his visit to the Pensieve in "The Prince's Tale"