Threat posed by Q
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Yes, anything Sev does is always influenced by his need to keep his cover against Tom's potential return. So he first will do everything he can to protect Harry that can in theory be explained away to his former master and former associates.
But once Q has openly tried to kill Harry (whether as independent agent or Riddle's)--what good is a perfect cover if the boy is killed? (From Sev's point of view, not Dumble's; Dumbles at this point would like Harry killed and Sev still his man, he thinks Harry's death--at Quirrell's wand--would eliminate Voldemort, and he'd still have an agent spying on Voldie's former followers.)
Unless Severus is vain enough to be 100% certain that he can run interference indefinitely between the boy and the would-be killer. I can see the Twinkly One adopting this attitude, but not Snape.
He may be Dumbledore's man, but we saw in PoA that when Dumbles wouldn't listen to him about dangers posed to Harry, he monitored the situation independently and acted against Twinkle's supposed wishes when he saw the need.
Now, if he'd figured out Quirrell was Quirrell!mort (not an independent agent and not just Tom's agent), he might well decide he couldn't take him out himself and that Dumble's game of smoking him out with the Stone was the only possiblity.
But I utterly hate the idea that Sev might have believed the Prophecy. (Which doesn't make it untrue, of course.)
The only thing I can really cite against it is that if Severus himself believed in the Prophecy (or rather, the bit he knew), and/or he understood that Albus was always trying to bring about the Prophecy's fulfillment, he should at least have considered the possibility that Albus might expect Lily's child to die in vanquishing the Dark Lord. It would still come as a shock that it's only BY DYING that Harry could do so, but he should long since have figured out that Albus was raising Harry as a warrior to be (maybe) sacrificed. Instead, poor naive fool, Severus really seemed to have thought all along that they were there to protect Lily's son.
(How young was he when he started following Dumbledore, anyhow?)
Me, I like the Confidere as an explanation....
But once Q has openly tried to kill Harry (whether as independent agent or Riddle's)--what good is a perfect cover if the boy is killed? (From Sev's point of view, not Dumble's; Dumbles at this point would like Harry killed and Sev still his man, he thinks Harry's death--at Quirrell's wand--would eliminate Voldemort, and he'd still have an agent spying on Voldie's former followers.)
Unless Severus is vain enough to be 100% certain that he can run interference indefinitely between the boy and the would-be killer. I can see the Twinkly One adopting this attitude, but not Snape.
He may be Dumbledore's man, but we saw in PoA that when Dumbles wouldn't listen to him about dangers posed to Harry, he monitored the situation independently and acted against Twinkle's supposed wishes when he saw the need.
Now, if he'd figured out Quirrell was Quirrell!mort (not an independent agent and not just Tom's agent), he might well decide he couldn't take him out himself and that Dumble's game of smoking him out with the Stone was the only possiblity.
But I utterly hate the idea that Sev might have believed the Prophecy. (Which doesn't make it untrue, of course.)
The only thing I can really cite against it is that if Severus himself believed in the Prophecy (or rather, the bit he knew), and/or he understood that Albus was always trying to bring about the Prophecy's fulfillment, he should at least have considered the possibility that Albus might expect Lily's child to die in vanquishing the Dark Lord. It would still come as a shock that it's only BY DYING that Harry could do so, but he should long since have figured out that Albus was raising Harry as a warrior to be (maybe) sacrificed. Instead, poor naive fool, Severus really seemed to have thought all along that they were there to protect Lily's son.
(How young was he when he started following Dumbledore, anyhow?)
Me, I like the Confidere as an explanation....