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

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Also, "sleeper" in the sense of someone implanted to work their way into a specific position, possibly to perform a specific task. And who's not expected to report (if at all), until the set-up is comeplete of someone signals HIM.

The big thing is, it might be a way different set-up than Snape presumably faces at the end of GoF--expected to report loyally whenever Tom calls him, with Albus's knowledge, and then report back to Albus afterwards and satisfy HIM that he's really on that side.

If the instructions were "get Albus's trust, get into Hogwarts, pretend to be reformed, and then-"--
Either, a)
get hold of the Hogwarts Quill's record of magical births/ a designated Founder's artefact/ a way for Death Eater's to enter the Castle, and signal me that you're successful

Or b), wait for my signal, and then kill Dumbledore/let Death Eaters into Hogwarts

That's what I meant by a sleeper. As opposed to someone shuttling back and forth constantly between two Legiliments, displaying loyalty satisfying each.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Well, that would 'sort of' explain away the bad math of Severus bringing to the resurrected Tom 'sixteen years worth' of information on Albus. If initially he wasn't reporting to Tom, only performing very specific tasks. Still doesn't quite work, because the earliest Severus could have started gathering new information after the prophecy itself was after the hilltop meeting, so still not more than 14.5 years.