CHAPDISC: PS/SS 1, The Boy Who Lived

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 187679

> Melissa:
> 
> True, but even then he didn't confide all in Snape. If DD had  been killed 
> prior to 6th year I think he would have been trusting to his  protrait self 
> to instruct the new head mistress (I'm presuming it would  have been 
> McGonagall prior to HBP that is.)

Zara:
He did not confide all at the time of the scene I mentioned (right after the Potters died), but we should also keep in mind that "all" was a lot less back then, than it was by the time of HBP. It is my understanding, for example, that Albus only got the idea of hunting Horcruxes after CoS. And he only got the idea for how to remove the soul bit form Harry at the end of GoF (because that idea would not have worked before Voldemort took Harry's blood). But he did confide to Snape that Voldemort would be back and Harry would be in danger from him.

I think Albus considered the Horcrux secret so dangerous he did not want to confide it to *anyone*, and planned to eliminate them himself. Snape saved him from his overconfidence, but that near-death in HBP persuaded him that he must share the secret with someone, and he chose Harry. (And Snape, for the second part of the problem, the soul bit in Harry himself).