[HPforGrownups] Re: Voldemort's Intentions & Snape's Expectations

[Shelley]

No: HPFGUIDX 189830


> Carol adds:
>
> Was there some double meaning behind his promise to spare Lily? I think not. Wormtail had demonstrated weakness, cowardliness, and wavering loyalty. Snape had not and did not. LV never knew that Snape was working against him. Who else could have pulled that off?
>
> Both LV and Dumbledore assign critical tasks to Snape that they assign--and can assign--to no one else (see DD's comments in HBP). Who besides the young Snape could LV have assigned to apply for a teaching position at Hogwarts? Snape's ability to hide the fact that he was a DE from most of the WW was reason enough to send *him* rather than, say, Travers or Yaxley. LV must have expected Snape to actually convince DD to hire him (as he did not hire LV himself) to teach DADA (for which LV must have known that Snape had a gift). That DD actually hired him to teach Potions (for which he also had a gift) would not have mattered to LV, who only wanted him there to spy without detection on Dumbledore and convince the old man that he had changed his ways and was loyal to him, not to LV. (Of course, Snape's other great talent, his superb Occlumency, prevented LV from knowing that the "lie" he expected Snape to tell without detection by the great Dumbledore was actually the truth.
>
> Carol, who suspects that LV could tell a Snape from a Yaxley just as he could tell a Lucius Malfoy from a Fenrir Greyback and that he set them all tasks for which they were suited

Shelley:
I know I'm snipping quite a bit, but I am making the assumption that 
someone could follow the subject line to get the whole conversation if 
they wanted.

About this point- the double meaning behind saving Lily- I think there 
had to have been some means to keep her from getting revenge.  I mean, 
no person in their right mind (and granted, Voldemort wasn't), would 
think that you could just murder their husband, murder their child right 
in front of them and think that person wouldn't do everything within 
their power to get back at the murderer. We don't have anything written 
for us to say what Voldemort would have done with an "alive" Lily, sole 
survivor of her young family, but it's quite possible that he would have 
tortered her to the point where she was technically alive but totally 
useless to Dumbledore and the others fighting him. Snape would have her 
alive, as promised, but Voldemort would also have his way in removing 
her as an obstacle to his future plans. Or he could have done something 
to her to turn her into an agent for the Death Eaters (we see evidence 
of his first go around, people that claimed to have been cursed 
unwillingly, into acting for Voldemort). Maybe he was thinking this 
brilliant witch in her own right could be a spy against Dumbledore.

Carol, you ask it yourself: "Who besides the young Snape could LV have 
assigned to apply for a teaching position at Hogwarts?"  Hmm....let's 
see.... a talented young witch to whom Snape's potion abilities were 
second to? The young and talented Lily Potter, who could plead to 
Dumbledore for a job to keep her mind off her recent tragedies, and for 
protection from Voldemort himself, as the Hogwart's Castle is safe?