META: Did Snape know Draco's task?

[amanuensis1]

Little bit of meta here, my take on one question posed by the Spinner's End chapter of HBP: did Snape indeed know what Draco's task was when he claimed to Bellatrix and Narcissa he did? Here's what Snape says:

"It so happens that I know of the plan," he said in a low voice. "I am one of the few the Dark Lord has told."

Some readers have speculated that he might not have, that he was bluffing. If that's so, that means he didn't know exactly what he was signing up for when he agreed to make the Unbreakable Vow. Why would Snape have taken such a risk? Possibly because he didn't know Draco's task and figured he darn well needed to know what Voldemort was plotting, so, by telling Narcissa "It's all right, you can speak freely with me," he'd have the chance to find out something crucial.

I don't see anything in that chapter that directly contradicts that idea; Snape's hesitation before he says the last words of the vow could also be said to support it. Perhaps he hesitates because he has no idea what he's promising, but knows he can't back out at that point without having his bluff called. However, one can also explain the hesitation if Snape does know that Draco's been directed to kill Dumbledore, because Snape would realize that by doing so, he's signed his own death warrant, since he's thinking there's no way he'll carry it through.

I'm more inclined to think that Snape does actually know, even though we have no hard-and-fast evidence. What we do have, though, is what can be seen as a clean example of an author's contrivance to keep the knowledge from the reader, by shrouding the element in "we must not speak of it, the Dark Lord has commanded," and "I already know of the plan." Keeps the reader in the dark. And that's all the explanation you'd need, as to why he says that. I think that's the most compelling element to sway me in that direction. But I do think that the chapter, and all the rest of the text, can support either hypothesis.

Comments

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

It's not that I can't be persuaded otherwise, but I'm usually in the Snape doesn't know bupkis camp (*g*). In fact, I think as late as Slughorn's Christmas party, he still doesn't know, based in part on this snippet between him and Draco:

'What is your plan?'
'It's none of your business!'
'If you tell me what you are trying to do, I can assist you '

One interpretation, of course, is that he's trying to get Draco to tell Snape himself, so that there's a bond of trust between them, but it sounds just like Snape talking to Bellatrix in chapter 2...and both of those conversations read (to me, at least) like someone trying kind of badly to get somebody to spill the beans about something because they think the other person already knows.

Mind you, if I'm right about this, Snape is really one of the most pathetic spies ever and it's a wonder he's survived as long as he has. :)

In further support? It's shortly after this that Hagrid reports eavesdropping on Snape and Dumbledore's conversation in the woods:

'Well -I jus' heard Snape sayin' Dumbledore took too much fer granted an' maybe he -Snape -didn' wan' ter do it any more '

'Do what?'

'I dunno, Harry, it sounded like Snape was feelin' a bit overworked, tha's all -anyway, Dumbledore told him flat out he'd agreed ter do it an' that was all there was to it.

My thought? Snape just found out what the heck it was he'd agreed to and he's trying to refuse.

So ends today's apologia. :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think the Snape-and-Draco conversation could be read that way, and is maybe better evidence than anything that happens in the Spinner's End chapter for that interp. The eavesdropping!Hagrid thing, though, could be read as an ongoing part of the arguments Snape and Dumbledore keep having about the issue. Snape went into the UV thinking, "That's it, I'm dead," and then was surprised by D. saying, "No, you're going to do it. I'm dying anyway, and you're more important in this role." And Snape refused and Snape squirmed as D. continued to demonstrate the better logic of this plan, and eventually he reluctantly admitted it and even conceded, but that doesn't mean that he stopped protesting altogether.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Oh, I definitely think that reported conversation is Snape squirming, as you say, but to me it sounds maybe like the first time he's actually said "no" to Dumbledore (and is then is immediately made to shut up *g*)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

See, I think if that's the first time he's learned of what it is, the protests would be WAY bigger, not something that Hagrid would overhear and dismiss as something so mild. Though I don't mean to argue that that's hard-and-fast, as I say; it could be as you say!

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Heh. You realize, of course, that when the end of July arrives, it's going to turn out that Snape was evil and was just playing Dumbledore all along. :)

*is struck by lightning*

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I do believe and did believe that Snape knew - otherwise he'd just agreed to die if he doesn't do an unknown task. And Snape is a Slytherin - that does tend to mean a decent sense of self-preservation. He's not about to, well, buy a pig in a poke.

Which, as you say, would also explain the hesitation. "I'm going to die. I'm going to stop Draco from killing Dumbledore and I can't do it myself...Fine."

[snakeling]

I've always thought, even the first time I read the book, that Snape was bluffing his way through that meeting. I think that if he had know something, he would have said something about it, rather than fish for information.

[mtnjoy.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I'm reading HBP to my boys and "Spinner's End" was our chapter last night.

I think Snape didn't know. *shrug* I don't know if I can articulate exactly why I think that, beyond his hesitation while making the Vow and that scene at Slughorn's Christmas party. (But then I've never been able to figure out whodunit halfway through a mystery, either. I just don't read that way, or my brain doesn't work that way, or something. It's been a source of great frustration to me, honestly!)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It's da end of da woild. *throws up hands*

[catrinella.livejournal.com]

I don't think he knew at Spinner's End, but I think he knew by the Christmas party - though I'm not convinced Draco knew at that point, beyond the cabinet! I read the party conversation as Snape probing to see whether Draco realizes the enormity of the task. (Caveat: have not re-read since last year.)

And Albus in this book makes me shiver - it's the steely core we always knew was beneath the genial grandfatherly exterior, but it's about his own death. Cold, cold.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

The "I already know" thing is such a writer's trick to keep knowledge from the reader; that's what keeps slapping me in the face like a big wet fish and asking me why on earth I think I need another explanation. And that hesitation, as you say--I read that and even though I didn't know what Draco's task was, at that very moment my mind did not think, "Uh, oh, Snape's wondering what he's got himself into," but thought instead, "Oh, crap, Snape knows he's just killed himself, because it's something he won't do."

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can see that--except then the reader would have known, too. That's what I keep butting up against. I really am not sure!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

This is one of those issues that I can't feel sure on, which I kind of like. Makes me feel the author's done a good job of keeping it a mystery, you know?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I swear, at multiple points in the book, I thought Albus was planning to kill Harry. So, yeah. With you on the cold thing.

[aqua-alta.livejournal.com]

I'm convinced that he didn't know. It seems like a spy-novel cliché to me (as the whole Order vs. DEs resembles a classic spy-novel plot, I think). The bluffing getting the spy into a pretty shitty situation etc.

I'm convinced that Snape only engaged in the Vow to gain knowledge/information. Which, perverse enough, he didn't. I don't think he would have engaged in the Vow that readily had he known what Draco's task was.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I do love the Christmas party bit, though.

Here we have Gryffindor self-sacrifice warring with Slytherin loyalty plus a healthy dose of stubborness that probably comes from both men.

[mtnjoy.livejournal.com]

There was also a bit where "[Snape's] black eyes were fixed upon Narcissa's tear-filled blue ones" that made me think Legilimency!

This is one of those issues that I can't feel sure on, which I kind of like.

Yes. Elder Son, who just turned 11, interrupted last night's reading with a puzzled, "Wait, why is Snape hanging out with Wormtail and Bellatrix? Isn't he good?"

I reminded him of the scene at the end of OotP (which we read aloud in a marathon session over spring break--oy) where it appeared that Dumbledore was sending him to spy. Talked a bit about what spying entails. Then I told him that it was one of the very interesting things about HBP, that we don't really know, even at the very end, where Snape's true loyalties lie. I told him to think of that as we read. Whatever we see Snape doing, whatever we hear him saying--think about how it could be seen from different points of view. Is he on Dumbledore's side? Or is he on Voldemort's side?

At that point Elder Son, who has Asperger's Syndrome and tends to see the world in very black-and-white terms, had a moment of lateral thinking that left me, quite literally, breathless.

"Maybe he's on his own side," he said.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

except then the reader would have known, too

Not necessarily. They could have used code; Snape could have dropped a couple of hints that only became meaningful to the reader in the context of the end of the book; or, given that she was in camera's-eye omni and the camera was placed wherever JKR wanted it, she could have done something like "He scowled at the staircase where Wormtail had disappeared, and turned away from it so his long, greasy hair hid his face from anyone concealed there. When he spoke again, it was so quietly that Bellatrix and Narcissa had to lean in very close to hear him. They all spoke in hushed whispers until Bellatrix finally drew back and snarled 'Very well.'" Or something.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

No! Say it ain't so! *flees the apocalypse*

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

I can see it in a lot of ways.

1. He did know, because Voldemort told him as a test of Snape's loyalty. ("I'm ordering Draco to kill Dumbledore...and you'd better not get in the way.")

2. He knew, but Voldemort *didn't* tell him. Either Death Eaters are more loose-lipped than Bellatrix thinks or else Snape legilimensed the info / is a good spy.

3. He didn't know, but had a strong suspicion just from hanging around Voldy for so long. When Narcissa extracted the vow, his suspicions were 98% certain.

But I think he did know. I think the hesitation was because he didn't expect to be asked to finish what Draco started, and because he also believed deep down that he wasn't going to uphold that part of the vow. He made the decision in that moment to sign his own death warrant, not expecting that Dumbledore was going to hold him to his promise.

Except that I think even deeper, he knew Dumbledore *would* make him do it, and he knew he would follow that directive rather than disobey. (So he's both a coward - for choosing his own life and D's last orders over his own conscience - and *not* a coward - for doing the hardest thing D's ever asked him to do. Which, I have to say, is deliciously complex and possibly the only thing I liked about book six. More or less.)

As for the Christmas party thing, I think at that point D's directions to Snape were to foil Draco's plan so that Draco wouldn't have to be directly responsible for D's death (or any other destruction he planned, such as letting DE's into the school). So while he knew Draco's major end point - a dead Dumbledore - he didn't know any of the other way stations, nor any of the methods Draco was employing. I don't see that scene as Clueless Snape at all, rather as a Snape who can see half the cards, but not all of them.

But then, I've always believed that Dumbledore sees Snape's role as a teacher at Hogwarts to be partly a way to keep the DE kids out of their parents' paths. So Snape's purpose has always been in part to protect Draco, and others like him, from their own prejudices. So it's not a stretch for me that Dumbledore would shift Snape's mission to include keeping Draco out of as much trouble as possible, not just to keep him from becoming a murderer.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's fascinating! Where and when did you think Albus was going to kill Harry? Can you remember offhand now?

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

So you know, it could be true that Snape was rebelling against his duty to kill Dumbledore AND that he is evil. Because he could be manipulating Dumbledore into telling him to kill him! That would be so awesome. It would also make Snape a huge opportunist. So yeah!

[catrinella.livejournal.com]

Oh, I thought Albus was going to kill him in the cave when they went Horcrux-hunting. I was seriously surprised when Harry made it out alive :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, can I ever. First off there was this genuine sense of "what the hell is with Dumbledore?" as the book progressed. Things like him assigning Harry to get the memory from Slughorn. Why on earth couldn't Dumbledore get that himself? It seemed like a huge contrivance. In hindsight I can agree with those who describe it as an example of how Dumbledore was teaching Harry how to do for himself. But at the time, I was wondering if this meant that Dumbledore couldn't because--he wasn't Dumbledore? He was being controlled? What?

Plus all of the pensieve jaunts. I couldn't believe that they were mere exposition. I felt JKR was a better author than that. So I thought, maybe something else is happening with those pensieve jaunts. Something. Like maybe every time they go into that pensieve it...weakens Harry. Or puts him further under the power of the person who took him into the pensieve. Something! Just not mere exposition. It had to be hiding something, because the exposition was a terrible way to pad out that book.

And then Harry learned about horcruxes. And I freakin' knew that what all this had been leading up to was that Harry was a Horcrux, and Harry had to die, and this was why Dumbledore had been dancin' all around this, and...doing something to Harry, so that he'd be vulnerable to being killed (much to Dumbledore's distress, mind! But something that needed to be done). And here was the kicker: when Dumbledore tells Harry that he knows the location of one of the horcruxes, and Harry says, all trustingly, "Can I go with you when you destroy it?" and Dumbledore is described as having this odd well of emotion about him...I was sobbing, "Oh, HARRY." All through the cave scene, I really, really, really thought Dumbledore was taking him there to kill him.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, THANK you for saying that. If you look at my response below, I thought exactly the same thing. Harry was a horcrux and Dumbledore was taking him there because he had to kill him.