Hey everyone,
Welcome to another instalment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today, we’ll be going for a deep dive into how Lord Voldemort never figured out that
Severus Snape was a double agent whose true loyalties lay with Albus Dumbledore and The
Order of the Phoenix.
As revealed at the very bitter end of the Harry Potter series, Professor Severus Snape
was one of the most successful turn cloaks to have ever lived.
Becoming a follower of Voldemort—and officially a Death Eater—shortly after leaving Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Severus was a wizard deeply entrenched in the world
of Dark Magic from a rather young age.
Before he became enamoured with the Dark Lord and his teachings, however, Severus’ first
love was that of the Muggle-born witch Lily Evans.
And so when Snape learned of a prophecy that inevitably sent Voldemort after the woman
he loved, and set into motion a series of events that would result in her death, Severus
chose to alter his allegiance and instead work for the very group of witches and wizards
set on destroying Voldemort—while pretending to remain a faithful servant to the Dark Lord.
At the very end of the series, through a devastatingly painful and sad montage of Professor Snape’s
memories—alongside a rather confused Harry, we discover that shortly after discovering
that his beloved Lily was in danger, he crawled back to his former Headmaster, Professor Albus
Dumbledore, in an effort to gain his help in preventing her murder at the hands of the
Dark Lord.
However, since Dumbledore was ultimately unable to save her from death, Severus was overcome
with the pain of her loss and decided to dedicate the rest of his time in this world to honouring
Lily’s life by protecting all that remained of her existence: her son, Harry Potter.
This, in effect, made him a Death Eater who’s true loyalties lay with Voldemort’s sworn
enemies.
But, of course, since Voldemort promptly disappeared after his unsuccessful attempt to murder Harry
as an infant, obviously there wasn’t much “double agent” work to be done for an
entire decade after Severus changed allegiances.
And, as many Death Eaters renounced their loyalty to Voldemort after the Dark Lord’s
disappearance, Severus’ reintegration into the wizarding world as someone who no longer
openly supported Voldemort was not suspicious—at least not to other former Death Eaters.
But as the Dark Lord regained his power and called upon his band of loyal followers, there
were those who doubted Severus Snape’s loyalty to Voldemort.
And yet, the Dark Lord himself saw no reason to question Severus after his return to the
Death Eaters, keeping him by his side, believing him to be one of his most faithful servants,
and keeping him informed of his many plans as he counted Severus as part of his innermost
circle of followers.
But how is it that the wizard many believed to be one of the most POWERFUL to have ever
lived never managed to figure out that Snape wasn’t truly on his side?
Well, I believe that the answer to this question is actually a bit more complex than one might
first think.
To which end, I’ve put together a few ideas I’ve had on the subject, starting with…
Snape used his Occlumency.
Voldemort was a skilled Legilimens who was able to enter the minds of witches and wizards
without a wand or spell, a skill that we Muggles would interpret as the ability to read minds—although
Legilimens is a little more complex than that, as it also allows you to delve into another
person’s memories in addition to their current thoughts.
Voldemort himself very frequently used Legilimency to interrogate his victims and followers to
ensure that he was getting a straight and honest answer.
So, of course, it goes without question that he would have been using this same skill on
Severus Snape in order to determine whether or not he could be trusted.
Not only would the Dark Lord have been able to tap into Snape’s thoughts when asking
him a question, he also could’ve poked deeper into Severus’ memories to understand if
he was telling him the truth about what happened while he was gone.
But as Snape was also a skilled Legilimens, he had also developed the ability to perform
Occlumency, which is the act of blocking another person from reading your mind and searching
your memories.
Whether or not Voldemort knew that Snape was able to perform Occlumency or not remains
to be seen.
But it would seem that he didn’t seem to notice or care to look too deep into the subject,
as he never questioned Snape about this kind of ability or skill.
Which very tidily brings me to my next point…
Voldemort thought too highly of himself.
The Dark Lord was—in Muggle terms—quite clearly a sociopath.
He was extremely antisocial and very obviously lacked any form of conscience.
This behaviour also seemed to manifest itself into his belief that he couldn’t be outsmarted.
He thought he was the most powerful wizard to have ever lived and that he was entitled
to the most powerful wand to have ever existed, the Elder Wand.
On multiple occasions throughout the series we see him behave in a way that suggests he
thought he couldn’t be outwitted or overpowered—perhaps with the exception of his encounters with
Harry Potter.
So, I believe that he simply thought that there was no way that Snape would’ve been
able to deceive him—for if he did, Voldemort would’ve been able to tell.
It’s also possible that he didn’t think that Snape was capable of Legilimency or Occlumency—as
such skills were only achievable by great and powerful wizards like himself.
In any case, it would seem that Voldemort may have never questioned Snape’s loyalty
for one very arrogant reason: he underestimated him.
And in addition to underestimating the abilities of other witches and wizards, there was also
one other major thing that Voldemort ALWAYS seemed to underestimate: the power of LOVE.
Voldemort didn’t understand love.
As he demonstrated again and again, the Dark Lord didn’t quite seem to grasp the magical
power of love.
From miscalculating its protective abilities when Lily sacrificed her life to save her
baby, Harry, to being unable to identify how Lily’s death would affect Snape’s loyalty,
Voldemort continually overlooked how potent this emotion can be.
So, while he may have known of Snape’s feelings for Lily—as Severus did beg the Dark Lord
to spare her—Voldemort didn’t seem to recognize what those feelings could lead to,
which in this case was one of his most loyal followers altering his allegiances to serve
those who stood against Voldemort.
Although, he may have overlooked this, considering…
Snape killed his sworn enemy.
One of the biggest pieces of evidence that Voldemort would’ve looked to when deciding
if Snape could be trusted was the fact that, in the end, he murdered his biggest rival—Albus
Dumbledore.
Now, as we later learn, Snape killed Dumbledore at the request of, well, Dumbledore—as the
Headmaster was already dying from having touched the cursed ring that had once belonged to
Marvolo Gaunt and had been turned into a Horcrux by Voldemort.
Of course, the Dark Lord didn’t know all this, and Snape’s act of killing Dumbledore
atop Hogwarts’ Astronomy Tower would’ve resolutely shown him to be a loyal, unwavering
Death Eater.
Then again, maybe he did know…but used it to his advantage
Finally, there’s the idea that perhaps the Dark Lord did know where Snape’s true loyalties
lay.
It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility that Voldemort—who we’ve already
covered as being one of the most powerful wizards of all time—knew that Snape was
a mole and was simply using this information for his benefit.
Think about it.
There are several times throughout the series that Voldemort feeds false information to
his group of Death Eaters in an effort to fool Harry Potter, Dumbledore, and The Order
of the Phoenix.
The Dark Lord even uses this same tactic when he realises that Harry has been able to see
into his mind, planting false thoughts to mislead Harry.
Voldemort may have also recognised that Snape WAS indeed providing him with some credible
intel from The Order of the Phoenix—as how else would Severus have been able to stay
in such high standings with Voldemort and the other Death Eaters if he wasn’t giving
them SOME information from the other side.
So, even if Voldemort knew that Snape was a double agent working for The Order of the
Phoenix, it’s highly possible that the Dark Lord wanted Snape to continue to bring him
bits of intelligence.
It didn’t matter to him that Severus wasn’t giving him full details—what he was bringing
him was likely enough for him to piece things together and stay ahead of Dumbledore.
And, with that, we’ve come to the end of another video!
What did you think?
Why do you think Voldemort never figured out Snape’s true loyalties?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Until next time…remember…
"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."