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deathtocapslock2015-07-30 11:49 pm
condwiramurs.livejournal.com) wrote in deathtocapslock2015-07-30 11:49 pm
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GOF - What do we think Severus was doing the night of the third task?
This question's more just a bit of curiosity regarding what everyone thinks on an unclear aspect of canon than anything else (plotbunnies, I tell you - they're dangerous).
So, what do we think Severus might have been up in the time leading up to the night of the third task and on that night itself? I'm particularly curious about what he was doing while Harry was in the maze, while Karkaroff was fleeing, and the half-hour/hour between Voldemort summoning the DEs to his rebirthday party and Harry's reappearance with Cedric's body.
Because at this point Severus, and Dumbles with him, has to have suspected strongly that things were going to come to a head sometime soon, and the task was all too easily a trap waiting to happen. And it's not like Severus was going to be playing fast and loose with Harry's safety and choosing to take that particular night off to go have a drink in the Hogs Head or something, not with the third task and the darkening Mark to be sending big red danger flags his way.
He seems curiously...absent from Harry's notice all that day, and for a while previously in fact, despite the signs he and Dumbles have had all year that something is obviously up and Harry's likely going to be involved. Indeed, between the start of summer term and his appearance the night of the task with Minerva and Dumbles to rescue Harry from"Moody's" interrogation post-graveyard, the only incidents involving Severus that appear on Harry's radar are 1) in chapter 28, his insistence that Dumbledore is 'busy' when Harry is trying to find him to tell him about finding Crouch Sr. in the woods, and 2) his mention in a memory in the pensieve in chapter 30, when Harry learns he was a DE.
What has he been up to previously?
We know from DH that by Yule at the latest he and Dumbles strongly suspected Voldie would try for a reappearance, given the darkening of the Marks and Karkaroff's fear.
In March (chapter 27) Karkaroff nabs him after a potions lesson to show him his Mark and claims Severus has been avoiding him. Harry and co. later tell Sirius about this incident, get an info-dump from him of 'he was up to his eyeballs in dark arts in school,' and theorize mistakenly that Crouch Sr. is out to get Snape as a dangerous dark wizard, referencing the earlier office break-in.
In chapter 28, in the last week in May, Harry and his fellow champions go down to inspect the preparations for the maze task; on the way back they find Crouch Sr., who urges him to warn Dumbledore of something. Harry takes off into the castle, and all but literally runs into Snape in the hallway as he's exiting Dumbles' office. His eyes glitter and he tells Harry that Dumbledore is "busy" when Harry babbles about finding Crouch in the forest; Dumbles then interrupts them by coming out of his office himself and Harry immediately leads him to the forest, leaving Severus behind. It's fairly clear that Harry's caught the two of them just after one of their tete-a-tete's, but I don't think we ever learn just what they discussed at this particular meeting.
"Moody" then catches up with Harry and co. outside when they find Krum and claims that Severus mentioned something to him about Crouch. A short while later Harry and Ron speculate that Snape might have been trying to slow Harry down and prevent them from finding the now-missing Crouch again in time.
After this the only mentions of Snape before the confrontation with "Moody" occur in the pensieve scene from Karkaroff's hearing, and his discussions with Dumbles and Ron about it.
On the night of the third task, we get - surprisingly to me, looking back and knowing his saving-Harry-thing - no mention of Severus anywhere near the maze or in the crowd; Minerva, Flitwick, "Moody" and Hagrid are the security patrol looking out for the distress signal from the champions, despite the sense it would make to have Severus be on alert there. Nor does he appear with Dumbles, Fudge, and Minerva when they rush over to the newly-reappeared Harry, collapsed over Cedric's body and mumbling about Voldemort. We know he wasn't at the graveyard, though his Mark had burned (Voldie's Coward/Oathbreaker/Faithful Servant schtick). So where was he? Doing what?
"Moody" at this point gets Harry away from Dumbles, drags him across the grounds and through the castle at a limping pace, and spends several minutes interrogating him about the rebirthday party before Dumbledore, Minerva, and Severus blast down the door. (Rather late for someone who had realized immediately that "Moody" was a fake when he moved away with Harry, as Dumbles claims of himself. terri's got more on that, though.) They subdue "Moody," and Dumbles sends Minerva to fetch Sirius to his office and Severus for WInky and Veritaserum. They soon return, Severus recognizes the impostor as Barty Jr., and Dumbles interrogates Barty at length. He then sends Severus for Poppy to take real Moody to the hospital wing, and to fetch Fudge to interrogate Barty himself while Dumbles takes Harry to see Sirius. Fudge, we later learn, brought with a dementor that Kissed Barty, scuttling Dumbles' plan to have Fudge hear of Voldemort's return from Barty's own mouth.
(Was it jodel, I think, who speculated that Severus may have deliberately facilitated that little mop-up operation as part of his run-up to reintroducing himself to his old master?)
In the hospital wing later, Snape shows Fudge his Mark when Fudge refuses to believe Dumbles and Harry. Dumbles starts rounding up the Order and sends Severus off to Voldemort - at least two hours late.
So, what I want to know is: what has Severus actually been doing during all the important points here? And what, specifically, was happening back at Hogwarts with our principal players while Harry was in the graveyard with the DEs?
I mean, it's difficult to imagine Severus didn't inform Dumbles right away when the Mark burned. But we've got quite a bit of time between that and Harry's reappearance, and Severus was seemingly nowhere near Dumbles or Harry at that point or for sometime after. Did Dumbles have him off doing something? Did he and Dumbledore argue about the merits of his obeying the summons immediately - knowing the possibility that Harry might be involved - versus doing whatever Dumbles apparently wanted him at Hogwarts for between that time and his arrival in "Moody's" rooms?
Why did Dumbledore have him delay by two hours responding to Voldemort's call, when Harry was out of their sight - and potentially missing - during a dangerous maze challenge and when a failure to arrive promptly would all too likely be taken as proof of desertion?
Ideas? Am I forgetting something in canon that later explains this? Where the hell was Severus? And what did he tell Voldemort about where he had been?
So, what do we think Severus might have been up in the time leading up to the night of the third task and on that night itself? I'm particularly curious about what he was doing while Harry was in the maze, while Karkaroff was fleeing, and the half-hour/hour between Voldemort summoning the DEs to his rebirthday party and Harry's reappearance with Cedric's body.
Because at this point Severus, and Dumbles with him, has to have suspected strongly that things were going to come to a head sometime soon, and the task was all too easily a trap waiting to happen. And it's not like Severus was going to be playing fast and loose with Harry's safety and choosing to take that particular night off to go have a drink in the Hogs Head or something, not with the third task and the darkening Mark to be sending big red danger flags his way.
He seems curiously...absent from Harry's notice all that day, and for a while previously in fact, despite the signs he and Dumbles have had all year that something is obviously up and Harry's likely going to be involved. Indeed, between the start of summer term and his appearance the night of the task with Minerva and Dumbles to rescue Harry from"Moody's" interrogation post-graveyard, the only incidents involving Severus that appear on Harry's radar are 1) in chapter 28, his insistence that Dumbledore is 'busy' when Harry is trying to find him to tell him about finding Crouch Sr. in the woods, and 2) his mention in a memory in the pensieve in chapter 30, when Harry learns he was a DE.
What has he been up to previously?
We know from DH that by Yule at the latest he and Dumbles strongly suspected Voldie would try for a reappearance, given the darkening of the Marks and Karkaroff's fear.
In March (chapter 27) Karkaroff nabs him after a potions lesson to show him his Mark and claims Severus has been avoiding him. Harry and co. later tell Sirius about this incident, get an info-dump from him of 'he was up to his eyeballs in dark arts in school,' and theorize mistakenly that Crouch Sr. is out to get Snape as a dangerous dark wizard, referencing the earlier office break-in.
In chapter 28, in the last week in May, Harry and his fellow champions go down to inspect the preparations for the maze task; on the way back they find Crouch Sr., who urges him to warn Dumbledore of something. Harry takes off into the castle, and all but literally runs into Snape in the hallway as he's exiting Dumbles' office. His eyes glitter and he tells Harry that Dumbledore is "busy" when Harry babbles about finding Crouch in the forest; Dumbles then interrupts them by coming out of his office himself and Harry immediately leads him to the forest, leaving Severus behind. It's fairly clear that Harry's caught the two of them just after one of their tete-a-tete's, but I don't think we ever learn just what they discussed at this particular meeting.
"Moody" then catches up with Harry and co. outside when they find Krum and claims that Severus mentioned something to him about Crouch. A short while later Harry and Ron speculate that Snape might have been trying to slow Harry down and prevent them from finding the now-missing Crouch again in time.
After this the only mentions of Snape before the confrontation with "Moody" occur in the pensieve scene from Karkaroff's hearing, and his discussions with Dumbles and Ron about it.
On the night of the third task, we get - surprisingly to me, looking back and knowing his saving-Harry-thing - no mention of Severus anywhere near the maze or in the crowd; Minerva, Flitwick, "Moody" and Hagrid are the security patrol looking out for the distress signal from the champions, despite the sense it would make to have Severus be on alert there. Nor does he appear with Dumbles, Fudge, and Minerva when they rush over to the newly-reappeared Harry, collapsed over Cedric's body and mumbling about Voldemort. We know he wasn't at the graveyard, though his Mark had burned (Voldie's Coward/Oathbreaker/Faithful Servant schtick). So where was he? Doing what?
"Moody" at this point gets Harry away from Dumbles, drags him across the grounds and through the castle at a limping pace, and spends several minutes interrogating him about the rebirthday party before Dumbledore, Minerva, and Severus blast down the door. (Rather late for someone who had realized immediately that "Moody" was a fake when he moved away with Harry, as Dumbles claims of himself. terri's got more on that, though.) They subdue "Moody," and Dumbles sends Minerva to fetch Sirius to his office and Severus for WInky and Veritaserum. They soon return, Severus recognizes the impostor as Barty Jr., and Dumbles interrogates Barty at length. He then sends Severus for Poppy to take real Moody to the hospital wing, and to fetch Fudge to interrogate Barty himself while Dumbles takes Harry to see Sirius. Fudge, we later learn, brought with a dementor that Kissed Barty, scuttling Dumbles' plan to have Fudge hear of Voldemort's return from Barty's own mouth.
(Was it jodel, I think, who speculated that Severus may have deliberately facilitated that little mop-up operation as part of his run-up to reintroducing himself to his old master?)
In the hospital wing later, Snape shows Fudge his Mark when Fudge refuses to believe Dumbles and Harry. Dumbles starts rounding up the Order and sends Severus off to Voldemort - at least two hours late.
So, what I want to know is: what has Severus actually been doing during all the important points here? And what, specifically, was happening back at Hogwarts with our principal players while Harry was in the graveyard with the DEs?
I mean, it's difficult to imagine Severus didn't inform Dumbles right away when the Mark burned. But we've got quite a bit of time between that and Harry's reappearance, and Severus was seemingly nowhere near Dumbles or Harry at that point or for sometime after. Did Dumbles have him off doing something? Did he and Dumbledore argue about the merits of his obeying the summons immediately - knowing the possibility that Harry might be involved - versus doing whatever Dumbles apparently wanted him at Hogwarts for between that time and his arrival in "Moody's" rooms?
Why did Dumbledore have him delay by two hours responding to Voldemort's call, when Harry was out of their sight - and potentially missing - during a dangerous maze challenge and when a failure to arrive promptly would all too likely be taken as proof of desertion?
Ideas? Am I forgetting something in canon that later explains this? Where the hell was Severus? And what did he tell Voldemort about where he had been?
no subject
no subject
I think by the time he left, the DEs must have left the graveyard, and Severus went to wherever Voldie had moved to - Malfoy manor? terri's thoughts on the Dark Mark over on snapedom suggest how Severus would have known where to go.
But yeah, it just makes no *sense*. From a Doyleist view, we know it's because JKR wanted him there to reveal himself as a DE before Harry, and apparently couldn't think of a way to have it happen earlier in the evening. But Watsonianly I just...what is Dumbledore *thinking*?
Severus, what have you been up to?
no subject
Yet the delay may have been planned, because it meant Severus could honestly claim he only arrived at the graveyard after Dumbledore told him to, thus avoiding Dumbledore's suspicion.