[the_old_crowd] Re: Who knew that Peter was the Secret Keeper? (Was: After all this time...)

[Rebecca Bowen]

>potioncat said:

>Now, how does Sirius know so much when he gets out of Azkaban, but he 
>doesn't know Snape was a DE?

Rebecca:

I have ideas.  I'm game to put them out here for others to ponder or flame. 
:)

 It's those nagging lines Bella utters in HBP:

"He shares everything with me!" said Bellatrix, firing up at once. "He calls 
me his most loyal, his most faithful -"
-AND-
 "The Dark Lord has, in the past, entrusted me with his most precious - if 
Lucius hadn't -" .

No doubt for me that Bella knew of Peter's spying and being the Secret 
Keeper for the Potters and she blabbed while in Azkaban - and left Snape out 
of it completely. The question for me is *how* she knew these things and 
from whom.

To Bella's knowledge, Snape was at Hogwarts back then as potion master 
because that's what LV *wanted him to do.*  Bella could know about the 
Potters location because she was perhaps there with Peter in LV's presence 
when the Peter revealed it.  I believe her that she did get her information 
directly from LV "back in the day."  Thus, Snape's name wouldn't have been 
mentioned in Azkaban as a DE, but Peter's would as a traitor to the DE's. 
The imprisoned DE's would be silent about the identity of other free DE's, 
including Malfoy and Snape and simply group them into the less faithful, but 
not traitorous like Peter.

I suspect a slightly different story will emerge about the torture of 
Neville's parents - if, as I postulate, Bella was in the know at LV's 
discretion back then. The Lestranges & Junior only went after Frank and 
Alice Longbottom *after* LV's visit to GH and subsequent disappearance. The 
questions this conjures:

* How would Frank Longbottom *know* where LV was?
* What if it wasn't Peter or Snape at all who was really there that night? 
How about an imperioused, traitorous or coerced Frank Longbottom? (Don't 
kill me for speculating about Frank - JKR hasn't told us enough about him, 
and something about his mother's pride in him juxtaposed with her early 
disappointment in her grandson makes me wonder if we might not have a rude 
awakening about Frank)
* Or, what if Frank Longbottom had possession of one of the LV Horcruxes and 
Bella knew of its existence?

We're told the reason for the Longbottoms torture was to find out where LV 
fled to, yet something is really really weird about that unless maybe you 
speculate wildly that perhaps Bella was in the know about SK!Peter, in the 
know about Snape's LV orders at Hogwarts, in the know about what was to 
happen at GH, and in the know about at least 1 Horcrux  in order to bring 
the Dark Lord back to power.

Too many questions, not enough time....

Rebecca, who thanks Catlady (Rita) and Ginger for their replies about the 
terms wizard and warlock. :)