Mar

so Snape is telling Dumbledore that he told Voldemort about everything he heard of Trelawney’s prophecy/prediction and how Voldemort comes to the conclusion that it must be Lily’s son, which means he will hunt all of the Potters down. now, i get it, it’s Snape’s fault for telling him, blah blah blah… but regardless, in this moment of weakness, Snape goes to Dumbledore and begs for help.

to which Dumbledore is basically like “well, damn, Sev, if she means so much to you, ask him to spare her and just kill her son.”

and Snape says, “i tried!”

and then Dumbledore is all shocked like, “wowwwwwwww!!! you disgust me. i cant believe you actually did what i suggested…”

then Snape replies, “hide them all, then! keep all of them safe! please!”

but fuckin Dumbledouche can’t just do a nice and super important favor. even if Album Dumbledork didn’t like Several Snake, he’d still be doing the world a favor by saving the Potters and their newborn baby, who Dumbledore knows from the prophecy is a big fuckin deal

no. instead, he says, “and what will you give me in return, Severus?”

bitch… excuse you? we aren’t trading our favorite chocolate frog cards here, we’re talking about saving a family that includes the boy who will one day save the wizarding world from the monster of a man that YOU are having ME risk MY life by secretly being a spy on the other side so that you twats can have the inside scoop on what they’re up to.

that fact that Severus loved Lily is the whole reason this whole thing is brought up in the first place, and i totally get that, but once Dumbledore hears that Harry of all people is in danger, the whole Severus/Lily thing should have been completely irrelevant. at that point, it shouldn’t have been viewed as a favor for Snape. it should have been a task that Dumbledore instinctively decided to help with on his own.

Dumbledore is on the right side of the war and has generally decent motives, but there is a very good reason why he is the leader of the light, why he is competent whilst Fudge and the Ministry flails, why he was the only teacher to suspect Riddle as a child, and why he was the one man who Voldemort actually feared.

And that’s partly because Dumbledore is an amazing war grandmaster.  He doesn’t have an overly emotional reaction to Snape’s confession, which most of us lean towards - the reader expects Dumbledore to be shocked, and shout, “Quick, let’s save Lily and James!” …but really, Snape’s revelation is not a shock to Dumbledore.  

Dumbledore has gone to meet a willing Death Eater, and whilst the reader assumes that his focus will be to act upon the Death Eater’s information and to save his own followers, Dumbledore is an astute, talented, fantastic war leader because he is almost disinterested in Snape’s information - after all, Dumbledore heard the prophecy himself, and must’ve already suspected what fate would fall to either Harry and his family, or Neville and his family.

What Dumbledore’s interested in is having a spy.