(Sorry if there's a topic like this somewhere already. I looked but couldn't find it. The only one I found was about DD wanting Snape to kill him. But I thought this deserved its own topic. And of course there's Snape-topics in the Character-forum but as some of my info is from HBP, I put it here.)

In the fourth book when we first find out that Snape had been a Deatheater, DD tells us that Snape left Voldemort before his disappearance and had then turned spy for the good side.

Snape himself states at the beginning of the fifth book to Narcissa and Bellatrix that he went to Hogwarts on Voldemort's orders. Definitely a sign that he had to have gone before Voldemort had lost his powers.

The explanation that DD gives for why he trusts Snape really came to their side was about his regrets that Lily and James Potter were killed and that it had been his fault for telling Voldemort about the prophecy.
This does not tail with the informations given above. Because he had already supposedly been spying for DD before Voldemort's disappearance.

Also in the fifth book when Umbridge asks him how long he had been at Hogwarts, he answers fourteen years. As this is rather at the beginning of the term (before Hagrid comes back which means it's like one or two months into the term), this makes it shortly after Harry's first birthday when his parents died.
While this fits with Dumbledore's claim for why he trusts Snape, it doesn't fit with coming to Hogwarts at Voldemort's orders.

This means, however, that the reasons DD gave for trusting Snape were not only utterly rubbish but completely off the mark. We still don't know what made DD trust Snape and if he was right to do so.

Edit: I messed up with Snape's 14 years and corrected this error.

Well, I don't know when Snape 'left' Voldemort, according to time lines. I do have an idea that maybe he loves Narscissa, and that is why he made the unbreakable vow with her so willingly. Maybe through his love for her, he began to see Voldemort's true cruel nature. It is this love that made Dumbeldore trust Sanpe, because only through love can Voldemort be betrayed and destroyed. Just my thoughts...

I don't think Snape had any type of romantic feelings for Narcissa. I think he just did his job for the order by making the unbreakable vow with her. I also think, since I have some hope he will redeem himself, that he truly DID want to protect all Hogwart's students...and that includes Draco.

This will be covered more in the debate forum, but I honestly think the vow had nothing to do with his romantic feelings for anyone. I think it had more to do with an agreement with DD on Snape's part.

Not that this is a Snape Romance thread, but if he were to have feelings for anyone it most likely, IMO, would have been Lilly...but this is not the place for that discussion anyway and I digress.

I just posted something about this topic in the 'Snape and Lily'-thread, I hope it's OK if I write parts of it here again. I think Snape changed sides because of Lily, as Dumbledore told Harry in 6: he said Snape felt remorse when he found out who the prophecy applied to and that this was probably the reason he came over to the Good Side. He hated James, and would surely feel no remorse because of him, but Lily...
As to times: the prophecy was made on a rainy and cold day, so I'd say it was November/December 1979. Harry was born on the 31st July 1980 and the attack on Godric's Hollow was on Halloween 1981.
In the fourth book (the Pensieve Scene) it's said that Snape changed sides the year before Voldemort's fall, which would be 1980. I think it was maybe one or two months after Harry's birth, when LV decided that Harry was the child of the prophecy. When Snape heard he was going to hunt the Potters, he became a spy for Dumbledore.

In the third book (don't know exactly where, sorry), Dumbledore says he had information that Voldemort was after the Potters and who should he have this information from if not Snape?

So I believe Snape left Voldemort somewhere in August/September 1980.

What do you think? And I hope I got all the dates right...

~Englaroma

i reckon he left him when he realised that lily and james' lives were in

danger as it was harry voldemort was after. didnt dumbledore say to

harry that snape was sorry and that he didnt realise that it was james and

lilys son or something like that so he coud of left before that and became a

spy then im not sure!

DDmcm I thik your on to somthing here.... but Sprout i also agree with you I don't think Snape had any type of romantic feelings for Narcissa.
yes confusing I know

but he may have been in love with SOMEONE and that made him turn against Good Old Voldy


and by the way Englaroma i am in aw of your work...job well done you deseve a pat on the back
*pat pat*

Thanx! *pats back*
I'm convinced Snape had romantc feelings for someone... he regretted having told Voldemort about the prophecy, but why? So if it wasn't because of James and it certainly wasn't because of Harry, ... *grin*
But as this is not the subject, I'd better shut up about it.

I also think that there could be a love scenario, but we can’t be to quick to dismiss Snape’s relationship with James. Snape does hate him true, but in the first book, after harry defeats Quirrell, DD mentions to Harry that James had saved Snaps life, and that’s why Snape was so keen to keeping harry safe. One could elaborate that when he heard that LV was going after the Potters Snape wanted to pay James back and leave it at that (no one wants to be in debt to someone they hate, especially if it’s something as big as saving your life) and who’s the only one who could stop voldemort from killing them? You guessed it old Dumbledoor himself............ This theory can even support Snape helping and saving Harry time after time. He blames himself for the death of James and his family(which it is kind of his fault, he had to go blab to voldemort), so he’s trying to make-up for it through harry.[i]

tout_à_fait_aube I don't agree with you. You're right when you say that Snape was in debt to James, but trying to save his life would have meant to betray Voldemort.

It's true DD said Snape had regretted having told Voldy where the Potters where, but we can't forget Snapes' temper. Voldi was his master, a sort of father, someone he admired for his power and his strength, who could fascinate all those people and made them his slaves.

I think one thing is regretting having revealed the prophecy, another thing is betraying the only family he had (Voldy and the deatheaters) for James Potter.

Snape is such an interesting carachter indeed. As Sprout I do think too that in the last book he will redeem himself, but I find very hard to understand his way to think and to act.

I think too he made the unbreakable vow with Narcissa only because he had orders to follow, But the question is: Where did these orders come from? Was DD or Voldi who told him to do it?

And speaking about the time he left Voldi, I don't know if we should believe in what DD said. It sounds strange to me Snape felt guilty after revealing Potters' position. According to me, DD didn't tell everything. There is still something which is the key of the story that we do not know.

I too agree that the whole switch over would have been around the time that Harry was born.... however I still don't think Dumbeldore should have trusted him. I mean... here's this guy that wasn't concerned at all about Voldemort killing any other baby. Who cares what the reason is?

Don't get me wrong here... I am a fan of Snape. I just think it seems fishy that Dumbeldore would trust him just because he changed his mind based on who it was. I wouldn't trust anyone that was okay with murder of anyone. But.... I guess that's the difference between young muggle and the greatest wizard of all time in the fictional realm.

I do agree with the Snape becoming a spy for Dumbledore around Harry's birth, it seems like it's around that time.

I really don't see Snape being in love with Narcissa, I think he took the vow because if he didn't he would be questioned about his loyalties and I would think Dumbledore would tell him to do whatever he could to gain the Death Eaters and Voldemort's trust back.

About him being in love with Lilly for some reason I just can't see it. I think he did care about her more than any of the others and such but I doubt he loved her. Not only because she was muggle-born, Gryffindore and in love with James either. I think he likes being alone and having no one really on his side and he'd rather life without someone else especially someone as happy go lucky as Lilly. Although that is completely beside the point. So I think if what Dumbledore said was true that Snape felt bad for killing the Potters it would have been feeling bad for killing Lilly and maybe a tiny bit for killing James who had saved him.

I just can't see that though why would he just all of a sudden feel bad about it unless he had doubts all along or he got doubt just after he became a Death Eater. I think there had to be something else like maybe Snape and Regulus Black where friends and Death Eaters together then Regulus tried to stop being a Death Eater (or whatever he did to deserve Voldemorts hatred and death) and maybe Voldemort ordered Snape or someone to kill Regulus and Snape was there and saw how Voldemort would just kill you if he felt the need. He could have become scared and went to Dumbledore. I actually have no idea what the other reason for Dumbledore trusting Snape where if there where other reasons but I just came up with this and thought maybe it was.

I think love for Snape is an useless feeling, that only the weaks can experience. He didn't know what love was in his family and he may not want to know it in his adulthood because it might make him feel weak.

I don't think he is in love with Narcissa, not at all. But I don't understand why some of you said he did care about Lily.

Perhaps I've missed this part in one of the books, but I don't remember JK wrote something similar. Am I wrong?

I too was very confused at the end of Book 6 when Dumbledore told Harry that the reason Snape came to the other side was because of the prophecy. I mean it stated in Book 4 that he came over BEFORE the death of the Potters. It sounded to me like Sanpe had regrets AFTER the Potters were killed. And that would indeed be a silly reason in my opinion to trust Snape. I think maybe Snape (like Lucious Malfoy) was scared when Voldermort vansihed and went to Dumbledore because of this fear, if indeed this was the time he "came over".

momo2515, I think it's possible that Snape had those regrets Dumbledore mentioned when he found out who the prophecy applied to. When he overheard Trelawney making it, Lily was already pregnant, but very few people would have known about it. So Snape thought the child could be anyone's, somebody he wouldn't know and would not have a problem destroying.
But when Voldemort started going after the Potters, Snape must have realised that it were actually the people around him, and those he knew from schooltime, that were affected. And whether he had romantical feelings for Lily or not, he might not have hated her as much as the Marauders, and wouldn't wish her child death.
Of course you're right that he had much more to regret when the Potters were dead, but the danger they were in before the attack was partially his fault - and something he might have felt guilty about.

~Glam

This would mean that Snape has an heart.

It could sound strange, but in the same way he regretted having told Voldie about the prophecy and letting the Potters die, he might also have killed DD to save Draco and to follow DD's orders.

Anyway, at first I didn't like Snape at all, but now I beginnig to appreciate him. I do agree with Englaroma: he couldn't know Lily was pregnant and when he realised the baby Voldie had to kill was Lily's son, he understood he had made a biiig mistake.