Snape's original defection, a question

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Something I think canon is silent on--I'd like opinions, informed or otherwise.

When we saw Albus send a white-faced Severus to Tom's side at the end of GoF with that "if you are prepared" comment, it was as a double-triple-quadruple-(to the nth) agent. Snape's life then balanced on his persuading a paranoid and enraged Dark Lord that he was really still loyal (or loyal again) to the Death Eater cause, but that Albus falsely believed Snape to have turned his loyalty irrevocably to him, and to now be only pretending to be a Death Eater in order to spy for Albus.

A very perilous position, particularly when both masters are expert Legilimens and know the other to be the same. The more one master trusts Snape, the less the other ought to, eh?

What does he see in your mind that I do not? What do you show him, and hide from me?

So--was this fiendishly difficult and demanding position the same as the one Severus was placed in when he originally obtained a place at Dumbledore's right hand as a supposedly repentant DE?

Or was the original assignment a little less complicated: that Severus was to approach Dumbledore as a remorseful Death Eater begging him for sanctuary at Hogwarts, the only stronghold still firm against Voldemort? In exchange for a pre-agreed--with the Dark Lord--flood of information on the Death Eaters?

And then stay there as a sleeper until Tom activated him?

If Tom had ordered Severus to do nothing but cement Dumbledore's trust until he explicitly told him otherwise, if Severus didn't regularly have to face Tom's interrogations and report satisfactorily on Dumbledore's doings, his position (both then and in GoF) was, while precarious, not as immediately lethal as we had thought.

Opinions?

Comments

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

I've had a thought about the idea of Sev taking a peek at the 'quill' - what does it say that Sybil's job interview took place at the HogsHead? Is it possible that after Voldy's interview for the DADA job (and subsequent cursing of the position), Albus then insisted that no future interviews would take place at Hogwarts?

Not only did Sybil's interview take place off-campus, despite it being during term (not summer holidays), but she also believed upon seeing Snape, that HE was there to get a job as well (or at least to ask for an interview?) One does not usually choose a pub when holding interviews for job applicants for teaching positions in a school for children. Perhaps the location was a convenience for Albus, not Sybil. I cannot really imagine a hopeful teaching applicant suggesting the HogsHead.

[oryx_leucoryx]

... And Aberforth is always on the watch for monkey business.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Yes, the more I think on it, the more I question it. There's a new DADA professor every year and yet no one ever seems to know who it will be. That's seems to me to be either because Albus doesn't actually interview anyone until summer when no one else is at the castle OR because the applicant never comes up to the castle until they have the job. It seems unlikely that they could make it all the way to Albus' office and never encounter anyone. However, not impossible.

[oryx_leucoryx]

To be fair, Lockhart was the last person to interview for the job, after that there were no willing candidates (except Severus, and he was a different story altogether) and the teachers were appointed according to the agenda de jour rather than selected.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Like the idea that Tom' was the last applicant alllowed onto Hogwarts grounds for his interview....