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The Carrows were recruited in the first war, Severus mentions them to Bellatrix in HBP (Spinner's End) as other who might have gone searching for Voldemort after his fall but did not. And of course so were Crabbe and Goyle Srs.
My pet reconstruction of Voldemort's strategy regarding Severus, Lily and the prophecy is based on the assumption that Voldemort was still a rather intelligent chess player at that point, not the idiot from DH. (It's not entirely my own, there are elements from Jodel, from duj and many others, like everything in fandom.)
Voldemort had a multi-stage plan in mind: kill the prophecy boy, make last Horcrux (which logically should have been the Gryffindor sword), very probably launch diary at Hogwarts to raise mayhem, use the opportunity to either kill Dumbledore at Hogwarts or force him out of the school so he could be killed. (And the next stage would be the final takeover of the Ministry.) In any case, he needed a DE at the school for the later stages - to steal the sword, help with the diary and ensuing mess, maybe even to kill Dumbledore. However by now it seems Dumbledore already found out that Severus Snape had joined the Death Eaters. So what to do? Get him concerned for the Mudblood girl, he will go running to Dumbledore and be genuinely repentant. Once Dumbledore fails to protect her poor Severus will be so mad at the old fool he will want to kill him there and then. Voldemort was going to lose Severus for a while but in the long run he expected Severus to be his, and of course eventually the DADA curse was supposed to get him. If all had gone according to plan, by June 1982 Harry, Dumbledore and Severus were supposed to be dead and Voldemort the immortal ruler of Wizarding Britain.
My pet reconstruction of Voldemort's strategy regarding Severus, Lily and the prophecy is based on the assumption that Voldemort was still a rather intelligent chess player at that point, not the idiot from DH. (It's not entirely my own, there are elements from Jodel, from duj and many others, like everything in fandom.)
Voldemort had a multi-stage plan in mind: kill the prophecy boy, make last Horcrux (which logically should have been the Gryffindor sword), very probably launch diary at Hogwarts to raise mayhem, use the opportunity to either kill Dumbledore at Hogwarts or force him out of the school so he could be killed. (And the next stage would be the final takeover of the Ministry.) In any case, he needed a DE at the school for the later stages - to steal the sword, help with the diary and ensuing mess, maybe even to kill Dumbledore. However by now it seems Dumbledore already found out that Severus Snape had joined the Death Eaters. So what to do? Get him concerned for the Mudblood girl, he will go running to Dumbledore and be genuinely repentant. Once Dumbledore fails to protect her poor Severus will be so mad at the old fool he will want to kill him there and then. Voldemort was going to lose Severus for a while but in the long run he expected Severus to be his, and of course eventually the DADA curse was supposed to get him. If all had gone according to plan, by June 1982 Harry, Dumbledore and Severus were supposed to be dead and Voldemort the immortal ruler of Wizarding Britain.