Why did Snape leave?

[Dumbledores Master]

I don`t have a theory for this I just want to know your thoughts.
Why did Snape leave the DE?

[Groo]

this is just whay i want to believe

Snape was a talented but twisted boy who got into the wrong company at school (if you remember, sirius said in PoA that most of his group ended up as DEs). Influenced by his friends and his pure-blood mania, he became a DE. Also, Voldemort must have been a hypnotising personality and so snape became a loyal servant and did some killing and stuff.

After a while he must have realised that he wasnt really evil and being a DE didnt suit him. Also DD must have done some great favour to him like saved his life. so, he realised his mistake and changed loyalties.

i dont think Voldemort did something bad for him as he has accepted him back. Also since most of his friends like Malfoy are still DEs and he is still close to them, DD's favour would have to be pretty big.

[Emma'I'm a real witch']

this is just whay i want to believe

Snape was a talented but twisted boy who got into the wrong company at school (if you remember, sirius said in PoA that most of his group ended up as DEs). Influenced by his friends and his pure-blood mania, he became a DE. Also, Voldemort must have been a hypnotising personality and so snape became a loyal servant and did some killing and stuff.

After a while he must have realised that he wasnt really evil and being a DE didnt suit him. Also DD must have done some great favour to him like saved his life. so, he realised his mistake and changed loyalties.

i dont think Voldemort did something bad for him as he has accepted him back. Also since most of his friends like Malfoy are still DEs and he is still close to them, DD's favour would have to be pretty big.

Groo, I agree with you on how Snape must of gotten involved in the first place, but I'm inclined to disagree on why he got out.
Firstly we can only assume that LV thinks Snape is still on his side, so he can't of publicly said "Hey guy's, it's been fun, but I'll be off now if its all the same". Somehow I don't think you just get to give in your resignation to Voldy.
So I think that Snape must of approached the order, as opposed to DD looking for him, and offered his services as a spy (keep LV thinking I'm still working for him, but save my neck aswell). We don't know what story he told DD, but he believed him. The only thing that bothers me in all of this is the DE's who are now escaped from Azcaban (sp?) they would of heard it say at the trial that Snape had turned spy for the order, surely now that they are out and LV is back they will tell him this piece of information? Unless Snape has double bluffed LV and said let me pretend to spy for the order but he actually was, spying for the order.

I'm confusing myself now

[Athena Appleton]

I don't know why Snape left the DE's, except for the idea that he was drawn in and realized it wasn't where he needed to be.

I want to add to a few things said...

I don't think Snape is doing all this I'm-a-good-guy stuff now because Dumbledore saved his life. It's been done. Over and over again.

About the trial, Malfoy and the rest of the Death Eaters who managed to stay out of Azkaban had convinced the higher-ups that they were either not Death Eaters, or they had seen the error of their ways, or they had been doing horrible things under the Imperius Curse. They may have just assumed that Snape's story was the same. Also, while the trial was public, the only person we know of who would have been recording information to share with the general public was Rita Skeeter and her imaginative quill. It's highly likely that the Death Eaters, who most assuredly wouldn't have been at the trial, who would have wanted to be as far away from it or the court in general, would have had to rely on whatever Rita's Quick Quotes Quill wrote down. Dumbledore's exact wording could very well have been changed up in the Daily Prophet's coverage, making it sound like Snape returned to Dumbledore at some point, but not specifying when.

What I'm trying to say is, I don't think the Death Eaters would have gotton an accurate retelling of the trial. The bit about Snape could have been left out of what they heard about (if they heard about anything).

[Alice I]

The only thing that bothers me in all of this is the DE's who are now escaped from Azcaban (sp?) they would of heard it say at the trial that Snape had turned spy for the order, surely now that they are out and LV is back they will tell him this piece of information? Unless Snape has double bluffed LV and said let me pretend to spy for the order but he actually was, spying for the order.

Snape being a spy was stated at Karakoff's trial and he was the onlt DE in the room at the time DD made that statement, unless one of the unknown DE's was also there. But to the best of our knowledge there was no one there who could tell Voldemort about Snape except Karakoff and Voldie would have him killed straight away before listening to anything he might have to say.

BTW Hi Folks I'm back
Hope you all had a nice week.

[Groo]

Groo, I agree with you on how Snape must of gotten involved in the first place, but I'm inclined to disagree on why he got out.
Firstly we can only assume that LV thinks Snape is still on his side, so he can't of publicly said "Hey guy's, it's been fun, but I'll be off now if its all the same". Somehow I don't think you just get to give in your resignation to Voldy.
So I think that Snape must of approached the order, as opposed to DD looking for him, and offered his services as a spy (keep LV thinking I'm still working for him, but save my neck aswell). We don't know what story he told DD, but he believed him. The only thing that bothers me in all of this is the DE's who are now escaped from Azcaban (sp?) they would of heard it say at the trial that Snape had turned spy for the order, surely now that they are out and LV is back they will tell him this piece of information? Unless Snape has double bluffed LV and said let me pretend to spy for the order but he actually was, spying for the order.

i think you misunderstood me. i didnt say that he handed his resignation to Voldy, i just said he "changed loyalties" meaning that now he was following DDs ideology and was faithful to him while still working as a spy.

And as for DD approaching Snape or viceversa, i am not sure which has happened, all i can say is that it is very deep.

i agree with your doublebluff statement. that is the most likely thing to have happened

[Athena Appleton]

I just had an idea...

When Snape was in school, James saved his life.

Snape heard about Voldy's plan to kill James, and he went to Dumbledore then to try to save James's life in return. That would mean he became spy shortly before Voldy's disappearance, and that's who tipped Dumbledore off that the Potters were in danger.

However, it didn't work: James and Lily were still murdered. That's why Snape saved Harry at the Quidditch match in P/SS, to kind of complete what he wanted to do ten years earlier: to repay James for saving his life.

[Nobby]

ive never thought of it that way! yeah it makes sense

[Groo]

i have always thought that snape was the one who tipped off DD about james because of what Fudge said in PoA "Dumbledore had a lot of useful spies and one of them tipped him that Voldemort was planning to kill the Potters"
but i never thought that he did it to repay the debt. good thinking athena!

one more thing, in OotP, snape boldly comes to the Order's headquarters to make his reports. he couldnt have done that earlier as Wormtail would have reported him. so he must not have been that active a spy, or he was more secret then.

[Alice I]

I agree with the thought that Snape was trying to repay the James saving his life debt.
When Harry was bemoaning the fact that he stopped Lupin and Sirius from killing Wormtail DD said that when one wizard saves another's life a bond is created and that Harry may be glad one day that he saved the little creep.
So it fits that Snape wanted to get rid of that debt to James because of his utter dislike for him.

[Athena Appleton]

one more thing, in OotP, snape boldly comes to the Order's headquarters to make his reports. he couldnt have done that earlier as Wormtail would have reported him. so he must not have been that active a spy, or he was more secret then.

Dumbledore already knew someone was leaking information to Voldemort, and since he didn't know who it was, he wouldn't have sent Snape into the enemy's lair without knowing who the traitor was. Also, just like the Death Eaters, I don't think the members of the Order know who all is in the Order. They know the ones directly involved with them, but I think others are out there, and finding out is on a need-to-know basis (and since Harry doesn't know who all is in the Order, neither do we)