What was Snape’s job before becoming a double agent?

Severus Snape – The Death Eater Days 3

Introduction

Hi everyone. As you guessed it, we haven’t finished talking about Snape’s Death Eater Days. Or rather, I had finished talking about them, but the script was so long I had yet again to split it into two videos, don’t judge me–But this time, this is not a video whose goal is to debunk preconceived ideas upon this fascinating character. Not a lot. Except for the last part where we discuss whether or not Snape was a Death Eater spy during the First War, this video will be chill and just explore some possibilities to present you the jobs which we find most likely Snape had before becoming Lily’s spy.

So we know at some point in his life, Severus Snape was under Lord Voldemort’s employ.

“He was still in Lord Voldemort’s employ on the night he heard the first half of Professor Trelawney’s prophecy. Naturally, he hastened to tell his master what he had heard, for it concerned his master most deeply.”

We also know Snape was accused of “Dark activities”, whether they were made as Voldemort’s servant or independently.

« Er, » he said, « Mr. Bagman . .. » 

« … has never been accused of any Dark activity since, » said Dumbledore calmly. […]  « No more has Professor Snape, » he said.

But what kind of “Dark activities” was Snape fulfilling before he became Dumbledore’s pawn, and how much did he work for Voldemort?

What did he do as a Death Eater?

Potions Dealer

We get very interesting information from Albus Dumbledore’s brother and Hog’s Head barman Aberforth:

“Don’t you worry about us,” said one of the Death Eaters, “worry about yourself, breaking curfew!”

“And where will you lot traffick potions and poisons when my pub’s closed down? What’ll happen to your little sidelines then?” 

“Are you threatening — ?” 

“I keep my mouth shut, it’s why you come here, isn’t it?” 

So the Death Eaters and their sidelines are involved in potions and poisons traffick–an equivalent of drug traffick, obviously–and one of the centers of exchanges is the Hog’s Head. And guess whooooo is a little Potions genius in need of money, and whom we already found in the Hog’s Head before he worked for Dumbledore?

We know that Snape made heavy corrections to a potion called the Elixir of Euphoria:

Cheered by this thought, Harry skimmed through his copy of Advanced Potion-Making and found a heavily corrected Half-Blood Prince’s version of “An Elixir to Induce Euphoria,” which seemed not only to meet Slughorn’s instructions, but which might (Harry’s heart leapt as the thought struck him) put Slughorn into such a good mood that he would be prepared to hand over that memory if Harry could persuade him to taste some… 

[…] “Mmmm…you’ve added just a sprig of peppermint, haven’t you? Unorthodox, but what a stroke of inspiration, Harry, of course, that would tend to counterbalance the occasional side effects of excessive singing and nose-tweaking…”

Euphoria is a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness. In other words, exactly the state you seek for when taking drugs.

Besides, the formulation of this sentence is so peculiar:

“Not quite,” said Snape calmly. “He wouldn’t give me the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, you know. Seemed to think it might, ah, bring about a relapse… tempt me into my old ways.”

“Relapse.” This is typically what an ex-drug addict says. And it would just be like Dumbledore to “save” a Potions dealer by offering him employment as a teacher in Hogwarts (of course, in exchange for services). 

Let’s say Snape was a Potions dealer. Did he brew them for himself, or to make money, or both? Was it an independent market or was he working on the sidelines of the Death Eaters? Is this how the Death Eaters found him (I mean, we all know that drug dealers are the kind of population criminals seek for)? Was his business running low when he decided that he might as well enter Voldemort’s service?

It’s likely Severus slept and lived in the Hog’s Head because he had barely any money, he was trying to get a job, and that’s where he was working as a Potions dealer in the meantime. 

“He was deeply impressed, of course, deeply impressed… I was staying at the Hog’s Head, which I do not advise, incidentally — bed bugs, dear boy — but funds were low.”

[…] “Yes, there was a commotion outside the door and it flew open, and there was that rather uncouth barman standing with Snape, who was waffling about having come the wrong way up the stairs, although I’m afraid that I myself rather thought he had been apprehended eavesdropping on my interview with Dumbledore — you see, he himself was seeking a job at the time, and no doubt hoped to pick up tips!

Which is why we would find Snape in the Hog’s Head as Trelawney gets an interview with Dumbledore for the post of Divination teacher. Who knows, perhaps Snape “spied” on the Prophecy by accident because he was just trying to sell drugs to Trelawney after the interview… Sadly for him, she settled for alcohol…

Spells and Potions Engineer

We know that Snape was such a talented student, he was able to correct his Potions textbook as a teen, make improvements on potions and ways to heal someone quickly (“Just shove a bezoar down their throats”–he’s right, who cares about making specific antidotes for each little poison when you can just use a universal one, the bezoar?), and he also invented spells, that ranged from a simple charm to a full Dark curse.

Very few people in Harry Potter have managed to create spells and potions on their own. We only have Albus Dumbledore (12 uses of dragon blood), Nicolas Flamel (Elixir of Life, Philosopher’s Stone), Tom Riddle Jr (unsupported flight possibly created on his own, although Snape could have been the inventor), Damocles Belby (wolfsbane potion), Pandora Lovegood, Hermione Granger (point me spell) and as we know, Severus Snape, and not much more.

Spells and potions engineering is a rare skill that presents a lot of risks, unfortunately. Pandora Lovegood paid the price.

“Yes,” said Luna simply, “my mother. She was a quite extraordinary witch, you know, but she did like to experiment and one of her spells went rather badly wrong one day. I was nine [when she died].”

At around 16 years-old, Snape has apparently already managed to:

• create the Langlock Jinx, the Toenail-Growing Hex, the Muffliato Charm, the Levicorpus Jinx and the Liberacorpus Anti-jinx, the Dark Spell Sectumsempra, possibly Vulnera Sanentur, and many more as hinted by Harry,
• possibly create the thick golden potion that healed Dumbledore from the ring’s curse,
• correct and improve the Elixir of Euphoria, the Draught of Living Death, and many other potions, again as hinted by Harry who breezes through Potions classes for nearly his entire NEWT year thanks to the Prince.

We also know that at some point in his life, Snape learned to fly unsupported, and it is likely he managed to learn it by himself. Levicorpus, literally “levitate the body”, could have been a prototype in an attempt to learn how to fly unsupported as a teen, and which ended up becoming the Dangling Jinx more or less by accident.

Regardless of the purposes of the spells and potions created and improved by Snape–for instance, creating Sectumsempra in case the Marauders tried again to murder Snape with a werewolf–the Death Eaters could very well realize how useful Snape’s talent could be for their own purposes. Why let such a great mind go to waste? 

The information we get earlier also corroborates this theory. Snape as a Potions Dealer would be in just the right place to start inventing new spells, potions and poisons for the Death Eaters, whether it’s in exchange of money, whether it’s forced, or whether he truly wanted to further their purposes by his own will. It’s also hinted at when we learn that Snape has been involved in Dark activities, and when Snape tells Bellatrix that Dumbledore wouldn’t give him the Defense post because it would tempt Snape in his “old ways”. Perhaps the strongest hint is Snape’s speech during the first NEWT Defense class in HBP:

“The Dark Arts,” said Snape, “are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal. Fighting them is like fighting a many-headed monster, which, each time a neck is severed, sprouts a head even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible.” 

Harry stared at Snape. It was surely one thing to respect the Dark Arts as a dangerous enemy, another to speak of them, as Snape was doing, with a loving caress in his voice? 

Or in other words:

“Your defenses,” said Snape, a little louder, “must therefore be as flexible and inventive as the arts you seek to undo.”

Isn’t Snape just the kind of Dark Arts nerd to create Dark and Anti-Dark magic?

And I know it’s kind of a stretch, but look at this:

Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.

Ah, yes, a book that includes a Tongue-Tying spell [Langlock?] and many other Curses and Countercurses, very recently created [latest revenges], for “enemies” [Sectumsempra: for enemies] or to “bewitch” your friends [“bewitch the mind”] and written by a certain Professor… one that goes by the pen name of Professor “Vindictive Green”.

Mmmmmh…

The one thing that would go against this hypothesis is that Snape has a very good reason not to share his spells: 

“Sectum —!” 

Snape flicked his wand and the curse was repelled yet again; but Harry was mere feet away now and he could see Snape’s face clearly at last: He was no longer sneering or jeering; the blazing flames showed a face full of rage. Mustering all his powers of concentration, Harry thought, Levi — 

“No, Potter!” screamed Snape. […]

“You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them — I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you’d turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, would you?

Snape has been utterly traumatized when his bullies stole his spells and turned them against their creator in the most horrible way possible. The trauma that accompanies the leaking of his spells coupled with the knowledge that if Snape ever shared his spells, they could get used against him by the Death Eaters or whoever they shared them with, would be just the right thing to prevent him from becoming a Potions and Spells Engineer for them.

But who knows, perhaps it wasn’t a reason enough to prevent Snape from selling his inventions. Imagine he had seen Harry with “Professor Vindictus Viridian”’s book in his hands? [wink]

Death Eaters’ Healer

We can make a good case of Severus Snape being the Healer of the Death Eaters. Throughout the books, we learn that Snape is extremely skilled in healing and saving people from Dark Magic. 

The first thing I could mention is–well–one of the first things Snape teaches us, in PS:

“A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons.”

In HBP, this is what we read in the book of the Half-Blood Prince:

And there it was, scrawled right across a long list of antidotes. 

Just shove a bezoar down their throats. 

Harry stared at these words for a moment. Hadn’t he once, long ago, heard of bezoars? Hadn’t Snape mentioned them in their first ever Potions lesson? “A stone taken from the stomach of a goat, which will protect from most poisons.” […]

He hastened towards the store cupboard and rummaged within it, pushing aside unicorn horns and tangles of dried herbs until he found, at the very back, a small card box on which had been scribbled the word Bezoars. […] Inside were half a dozen shrivelled brown objects, looking more like dried-up kidneys than real stones.

Severus at age 15 was cunning enough to know that it was a waste of time to brew a specific antidote for each and every poison when you could use a single one: a bezoar. Very practical, since you do not have much time to deduce what someone has been poisoned with and brew the correct antidote, before they succumb to the poison. It very well saved Ron’s life. Notice that Snape keeps a dozen of those Bezoars in his class–that’s a lot.

Oh, and if Snape lived at the Hog’s Head, considering there probably were goats around there, it might provide him with a constant supply of bezoars. Convenient, since Slughorn remarks bezoars are “pretty rare” otherwise.

The Hog’s Head bar comprised one small, dingy, and very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have been goats. 

In Chamber of Secrets, after Mrs Norris gets Petrified and Lockhart starts to show off, Snape declares proudly:

“I’ll make it,” Lockhart butted in. “I must have done it a hundred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep —” 

“Excuse me,” said Snape icily. “But I believe I am the Potions master at this school.” 

There was a very awkward pause. 

It is Snape who brews the Mandrake Restorative Draught, a potion that is able to save those Petrified by the Basilisk, which involves countering “Dark magic of the most advanced” kind, as Dumbledore says.

In Order of the Phoenix, Hermione has been hit by Death Eater Dolohov by an unknown curse:

The curse Dolohov had used on her, though less effective than it would have been had he been able to say the incantation aloud, had nevertheless caused, in Madam Pomfrey’s words, “quite enough damage to be going on with.” Hermione was having to take ten different types of potion every day and although she was improving greatly, was already bored with the hospital wing. 

Considering that Snape is the Potions Master who brewed the Mandrake Restorative Draught in CoS, it’s not a stretch to deduce Snape is the one who provides those “ten different types of potion every day” to Miss Granger, who was able to heal rapidly from this kind of Dark Magic.

Dumbledore is fortunate to have Snape on his side, when he was almost killed by the Gaunt Ring in the summer of 1996:

And now Harry stood in the headmaster’s office yet again. It was nighttime, and Dumbledore sagged sideways in the thronelike chair behind the desk, apparently semiconscious. His right hand dangled over the side, blackened and burned. Snape was muttering incantations, pointing his wand at the wrist of the hand, while with his left hand he tipped a goblet full of thick golden potion down Dumbledore’s throat. After a moment or two, Dumbledore’s eyelids fluttered and opened. […]

“It is a miracle you managed to return here!” Snape sounded furious. “That ring carried a curse of extraordinary power, to contain it is all we can hope for; I have trapped the curse in one hand for the time being – ” 

Dumbledore raised his blackened, useless hand, and examined it with the expression of one being shown an interesting curio. 

“You have done very well, Severus. How long do you think I have?” Dumbledore’s tone was conversational; he might have been asking for a weather forecast. Snape hesitated, and then said, “I cannot tell. Maybe a year. There is no halting such a spell forever. It will spread eventually, it is the sort of curse that strengthens over time.” 

Dumbledore smiled. The news that he had less than a year to live seemed a matter of little or no concern to him. 

“I am fortunate, extremely fortunate, that I have you, Severus.” 

Snape was able to contain for a year a curse of “extraordinary power”: the curse of a Horcrux, the worst kind of Dark Magic, performed by Voldemort himself. It is incredible that he could contain it at all, let alone for a year, and yet Snape believes that if only Dumbledore had come sooner, Snape would have bought him even more time. Notice the use of interdisciplinary magic: Snape is using healing incantations coupled with a mysterious “thick golden potion”. Very unique.

In HBP, Katie Bell was able to survive–and Draco kept from becoming a murderer–thanks to Snape’s intervention:

“Luckily Professor Snape was able to do enough to prevent a rapid spread of the curse —” 

“Why him?” asked Harry quickly. “Why not Madam Pomfrey?” […]

“Professor Snape knows much more about the Dark Arts than Madam Pomfrey, Harry.”

Dumbledore recognizes Snape’s healing talent: his knowledge of the Dark Arts allows him to undo them and save people, something Pomfrey would have trouble doing. Like in medicine, because Snape knows the “poison”, he is able to find the cure.

Next, is one of the most bloody scenes you could witness in HP. Harry uses Sectumsempra on Draco:

Blood spurted from Malfoy’s face and chest as though he had been slashed with an invisible sword. He staggered backward and collapsed onto the waterlogged floor with a great splash, his wand falling from his limp right hand. 

“No —” gasped Harry. 

Slipping and staggering, Harry got to his feet and plunged toward Malfoy, whose face was now shining scarlet, his white hands scrabbling at his blood-soaked chest. 

Myrtle is quick to announce murder has taken place. Snape is quick to intervene:

Pushing Harry roughly aside, he knelt over Malfoy, drew his wand, and traced it over the deep wounds Harry’s curse had made, muttering an incantation that sounded almost like song. The flow of blood seemed to ease; Snape wiped the residue from Malfoy’s face and repeated his spell. Now the wounds seemed to be knitting. […] 

When Snape had performed his countercurse for the third time, he half-lifted Malfoy into a standing position. 

“You need the hospital wing. There may be a certain amount of scarring, but if you take dittany immediately we might avoid even that… Come…”

But this is incredible. We know that Sectumsempra involves Dark Magic, and if someone is wounded by it, it is supposedly impossible to heal them. Look at what happened when Snape cursed George’s ear off by accident:

“Mrs. Weasley looked around and said, « I can’t make it grow back, not when it’s been removed by Dark Magic. But it could’ve been so much worse . . . . He’s alive. »

And yet, Snape is supposedly the only person able to heal the Sectumsempra spell used by Harry himself (we know Harry is quite a powerful wizard, and he used this spell in a moment of savage panic, so the power of Sectumsempra might be increased in his case). Severus is able to save Draco and prevents a huge amount of scars to remain. This song-like spell has been called Vulnera Sanentur in the films, and if it had been applied to George’s ear, it could possibly have been sealed back together or perhaps even regrown. Does it only heal Sectumsempra? Or is it possible to use Vulnera Sanentur on any wound caused by Dark Magic? Because that would make Severus a formidable healer of Dark Arts.

Dumbledore trusts Snape later in the timeline yet again. Weakened by the Horcrux’ curse, the Drink of Despair and the fight against the Inferi, Dumbledore asks Harry to bring in Snape. 

Not Pomfrey — Professor Snape.

“We need to get you up to the school, sir…Madam Pomfrey…” 

“No,” said Dumbledore. “It is… Professor Snape whom I need… but I do not think… I can walk very far just yet…” 

“Right — sir, listen — I’m going to knock on a door, find a place you can stay — then I can run and get Madam —” 

“Severus,” said Dumbledore clearly. “I need Severus…”

So here, the text can have two interpretations. Either Dumbledore is confident in Snape’s healing ability, enough to believe he can recover from the Drink of Despair without Pomfrey’s aid… or Dumbledore was asking Snape because he knew the time had come and Snape must euthanize him. Either way, Dumbledore trusts Snape to do a good job at putting an end to unnecessary pain.

Is it possible that many other people asked the same of Snape, whatever the side they were on?

So both in incantation and potions skills, Severus Snape has proved to be an exceptional healer. 

Honestly, that would be great for the Death Eaters, and it allows Snape not to participate in slaughters.

Spy 

We know that Snape was a spy for Dumbledore, and the Death Eaters thought he was their spy in the Second War. But can the same be said during the First War?

Here is what we read in HBP:

He picked up his drink again, sipped it, and continued, “You ask where I was when the Dark Lord fell. I was where he had ordered me to be, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, because he wished me to spy upon Albus Dumbledore. You know, I presume, that it was on the Dark Lord’s orders that I took up the post?” 

So Snape became a Hogwarts Professor on Voldemort’s order. However, was this order made before… or after betraying Voldemort? Was it an order Snape followed as Voldemort’s servant… or as Dumbledore’s man?

In OotP, year 1995, Umbridge asks:

“Now . . . how long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?” she asked, her quill poised over her clipboard. 

“Fourteen years,” Snape replied.

Meaning that Snape joined Dumbledore’s staff in September 1981.

At this point, it’s already been a year since Snape betrayed Voldemort (October 1980). He was already working for Dumbledore as a spy, long before he managed to get the post of teacher at Hogwarts.

So it is totally possible that Dumbledore and Snape convinced Voldemort to have Snape get a teaching post at Hogwarts in 1981 “on the purpose of spying on Dumbledore”. Perhaps they even managed to make Voldemort believe it was his own idea all along, a bit like in Inception. 

Meaning that Snape never really was a spy for the Death Eaters. The first and only person he truly spied for always was Dumbledore.

And yet, you’ll tell me, didn’t Snape spy on Trelawney? Wasn’t he already trying to become a teacher at Hogwarts before he became a spy for Dumbledore? You could assume these following those quotes:

“Yes, there was a commotion outside the door and it flew open, and there was that rather uncouth barman standing with Snape, who was waffling about having come the wrong way up the stairs, although I’m afraid that I myself rather thought he had been apprehended eavesdropping on my interview with Dumbledore — you see, he himself was seeking a job at the time, and no doubt hoped to pick up tips!”

Trelawney suspects Snape wanted to teach at Hogwarts at a time he hadn’t betrayed Voldemort yet, that he was getting prepared for an interview with Dumbledore by picking up tips from Trelawney (of all people). We also have this:

“He was still in Lord Voldemort’s employ on the night he heard the first half of Professor Trelawney’s prophecy. Naturally, he hastened to tell his master what he had heard, for it concerned his master most deeply.”

Dumbledore suspects that Snape was in Voldemort’s employ the night he overheard the first half of the prophecy, and that’s why he naturally hastened to tell Voldemort.

But first, even if Snape “spied” on Dumbledore purposefully, it doesn’t mean Voldemort gave him the job of a spy officially. Snape might have had a totally different job. Perhaps he worked for the Death Eaters, but he was never given a specific job by them. Contrary to someone such as Pettigrew, Snape wasn’t a known member of the Order in the First War, he wasn’t even close to Dumbledore at the time and had rather been treated very badly by him as a student. Rookwood was an Unspeakable, Lucius, Umbridge and Macnair held valuable positions inside the Ministry and Hogwarts… Snape? Nothing, and he’s unpopular. Why would Voldemort think to make Snape a spy when he is in such a bad position? 

Second, only Trelawney suspects that Snape wanted to become a teacher at Hogwarts at the time, not Dumbledore. Given her obviously biased interpretation of the events, it’s not difficult to think she might be mistaken to think Snape wanted to pick up tips for an interview with Dumbledore, or ever wanted to become a teacher at Hogwarts in the first place, whether or not he truly was looking for a job at the time.

Three, in the case Snape was sent to become a teacher at Hogwarts, it’s very well possible it wasn’t in the quality of a spy. It could be that Voldemort just wanted to place Snape where he could finish off Dumbledore or any enemy inside Hogwarts relatively easily, or get an access at Hogwarts to later have other Death Eaters infiltrate it (Draco + Vanishing Cabinet), without a need for spying, the same way Voldemort had Draco do it.

And four, even if Snape actually wanted to become a teacher at Hogwarts, it doesn’t mean he’s doing it on Voldemort’s orders in the first place. It could also be that Snape was trying to get a job at Hogwarts so he would extract himself from the Death Eaters and a life of misery, more or less discreetly. It’s just that when he was caught overhearing Trelawney’s prophecy, he figured his chances of succeeding his interview with Dumbledore were blown up and he might as well just tell Voldemort what he had heard. 

He might have truly wanted to spy on Dumbledore for Voldemort… Just as it is possible that he did it with another purpose in mind, such as truly wanting to get tips from Trelawney, waiting for Dumbledore to leave before he could propose her interesting articles, waiting for the interview to end so when Dumbledore leaves he can ask him in person if he could plan an interview with Snape for the post of Defense teacher–which would be rather suicidal considering there’s been a deadly jinx on it for decades, but perhaps Snape counted on that–or just by curiosity (and our dear Harry can well relate to that). Perhaps he just wanted to have a good laugh, listening to Trelawney making a fool of herself, as the great fraud she is.

So, did Snape ever hold the job of a Death Eater spy, without it being a lie? 

We can’t be certain. 

Conclusion

We saw in our previous essay that Snape likely wasn’t an Assassin. Sadly?

Perhaps after reading this current essay, you will understand how Snape truly doesn’t seem to have done many crimes during his Dark Days. And you know, I do like to think that Snape might have been all of that — a Potions Dealer, a Spells-Potions Engineer and a Dark Healer as he got more and more involved in the Death Eater gang, by will, force or necessity, until he became a full-time spy.