Why did Harry tell Snape's secret to everyone?

Question

In the climax of the Battle of Hogwarts, when he duels the Dark Lord for the last time, Harry Potter explains to the Dark Lord that Professor Snape was in love with Lily Potter.

‘Snape's Patronus was a doe,’ said Harry, ‘the same as my mother's, because he loved her for nearly all his life, from the time when they were children. […]’

(Harry addresses the Dark Lord here, but it seems that everyone in the hall can hear his speech.)

Why would Harry do that, if he knows that Professor Snape specifically wanted to keep that a secret? This seems very disrespectful towards Professor Snape to me.

On what basis do you claim that "Professor Snape specifically wanted to keep [his love for Harry's mother] a secret"? Where in the canon does it say so? Note that this claim is quite separate from what Snape made Dumbledore promise, i.e., that Dumbledore would never reveal that Snape was working to protect Harry, all appearances notwithstanding. AFAICT, Snape extracted no such promise from Harry, right? — Mico, Jun 22 '16 at 16:22
In his dying moment, Snape revealed his most well-kept secret to the last person on earth that he wanted to reveal it to. Think about that. Snape didn't care anymore. — sampathsris, Jun 23 '16 at 06:29
@Krumia: I'm not sure if we have a question about that, but I think at that point Snape was forced to do that, because he had to tell Dumbledore's message to Harry, and this was the only way he could convince Harry that he isn't lying about that message. — b_jonas, Jun 23 '16 at 06:53
I'm not sure the whole "being in love with Lily" thing was the secret Snape wanted kept hidden (although I'm sure he didn't want it advertised). I think the secret he wanted kept hidden was why he was helping the Order - that involves a far broader and more shameful tale of woe. Note that Snape only asks for Dumbledore's silence when Dumbledore tells him to watch after Harry, not when he asks Dumbledore to keep Lily safe. — DavidS, Jun 23 '16 at 09:36
What is the point of the spoiler tag here? Is it to guard us from the fact that Professor Snape was in love with Lily Potter, cause if so I think you've shot a little wide... — RyanfaeScotland, Oct 29 '18 at 13:16

NKCampbell · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-23T19:20:21.507

133

Speculation:

He's using it as further evidence that Snape had turned against Voldemort and had been playing him the entire time.

He's calling out to Voldemort that not only was his attack on Harry and his family part of his original undoing - but it will ultimately serve to be part of his final undoing and Snape will have had a hand in that, all because of love. He's telling Voldemort that he (Voldemort) had miscalculated entirely on the front of how powerful a motivator and magical power love can be.

Harry is in a battle for his life with the most powerful dark wizard ever. He isn't going to say "hey - I've got some news for you, but, it's kind of a secret from a former pal of yours and he may not be terribly comfortable with me telling everyone standing around here listening. Would you mind leaning in so I can whisper it to you? Be cool though, no attacking."

Additionally, Harry probably on some level did want to redeem Snape in the eyes of everyone, just in case Harry died. They all spent years not trusting and hating Snape and Harry had a chance to correct some perceptions about Snape and Snape's motivations. But, on the other hand, while he eventually came to respect and admire Snape, Harry probably still had 7 years of harassment to outweigh any concerns over Snape's feelings over being potentially embarrassed.

Also - Snape didn't care anymore :\

edited Jun 23 '16 at 19:20

answered Jun 21 '16 at 22:11

NKCampbell

39,978
13
149
203

18

You can safely delete all of the answer and leave the last line. I'm pretty sure Harry wouldn't have said so if Snape had not died – DVK-on-Ahch-To Jun 22 '16 at 00:37
1

Yeah, well, Snape was dead by then. Though technically, his portrait in the Headmaster's office might have been listening in. – Otheus Jun 22 '16 at 11:05
3

@Otheus Doubtful, since he didn't automatically get one, because he abandoned his post! Harry had to lobby for one to be put there (who knows how they managed to create that one). JKR said so herself. – BMWurm Jun 22 '16 at 15:42
1

Or maybe, Harry did that to get even after six/seven years worth of grudge. – skytreader Jun 22 '16 at 19:30
3

He's telling Voldemort that he (Voldemort) had... +1 for properly identifying your pronouns! – FreeMan Jun 22 '16 at 19:31
10

You were prudent to start off your answer with "Speculation", as the very premise of the question is flawed: Nowhere in the canon is it stated that "[Harry] knows that Professor Snape specifically wanted to keep [his love for Harry's mother] a secret". For sure, when Snape, Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin etc attended Hogwarts, it was widely known that Snape admired and loved Lily. Voldemort too knew that Snape had at one point been in love with Lily. Not much of a secret to hide, if you ask me. – Mico Jun 22 '16 at 19:39
@Mico I think that Snape (while alive) would definitely have wanted to keep that knowledge from Harry. The fact that he was in love with Lily but James was the one who ultimately won Lily's love was a permanent sore spot and would represent a vulnerability that Snape would never have wanted to reveal. Snape (at least, as I understood it) was not faking his loathing for Harry--he was faking his loyalty to Voldemort. Had the knowledge leaked out to the students that Professor Snape had been in love with--and, in fact, was still in love with--Harry's mother, Snape wouldn't have been happy. – msouth Jun 23 '16 at 05:45
@msouth - I agree with the points you make, but that's not what the question is about. Snape, who knew he was about to die, shared his memories with Harry without imposing any conditions of secrecy. Hence, the premise that Harry was somehow disrespectful by revealing the (non)secret is flawed. – Mico Jun 23 '16 at 05:48
@Mico I'm not really arguing that there was an injunction on sharing the information. Snape was dying and struggling to speak--he really couldn't have been expected to give detailed instructions. Also, people do tend to care about their legacy, so it could be inferred, or just guessed, that Snape might have preferred not to let people know this.
What I'm saying is that the person asking the question does have a valid angle from which to ask it, with these considerations in mind. He uses his last words to get a look at Lily's eyes again--not give detailed instructions.

ie we don't know
– msouth Jun 23 '16 at 22:56
1

@Mico just to be clear, I also see your side and thing it's a perfectly valid take--I just think that we don't really have enough information at the end about what was going on in Snape's head to know what he would have wanted, and that you can credibly argue both sides. – msouth Jun 24 '16 at 00:14
1

@msouth - Thanks. Maybe I was reacting more strongly than necessary to the "specifically" word in the claim that "...Snape specifically wanted to keep that a secret". For me, a valid claim must have a well-established premise; if it's debatable (to put it politely) whether the premise even holds to begin with, the value of any subsequent discussion is rather doubtful. – Mico Jun 24 '16 at 04:08
1

He's telling Voldemort that he (Voldemort) had miscalculated entirely on the front of how powerful a motivator and magical power love can be. IMO this is a key point. The entire time Voldemort could never understand "Love," even after it had affected him the first time. – XaolingBao Jun 24 '16 at 10:08

score 19 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 23 '16 at 05:16

19

(Too long for a comment, hence posted as an answer.)

On what basis do you rest the claim that "Professor Snape specifically wanted to keep [his love for Harry's mother] a secret"? As far as I can tell, (a) Snape's love for Lily was never a secret and (b) at no point did Snape make Harry promise to keep this (non-)secret.

When Snape, Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin etc attended Hogwarts, it was widely known that Snape admired and loved Lily. Voldemort too knew that Snape had been in love with Lily. Not much of a secret, this piece of knowledge... It is probably true that not many people knew the reason for why Snape's Patronus was a doe -- that Lily's Patronus was a doe too. However, that's just one -- admittedly very tangible -- proof of the strong feelings Snape felt for Lily, not a revelation of the underlying secret.

For sure, Snape made Dumbledore promise -- immediately following the deaths of Harry's parents -- that he (Dumbledore) would never let Harry know that Snape was committed to helping Harry survive and succeed. Importantly, though, Snape extracted no such promise before giving Harry his memories as he was dying from Nagini's bites. Harry was thus free to make use of the memories as he saw fit.

The two preceding paragraphs are based on the very end of Chapter 32, "The Elder Wand", and on Chapter 33, "The Prince's Tale", in HP7.

answered Jun 23 '16 at 05:16

Mico

1,128
8
12

No. It is clear from the paragraph before the one I quoted in the question that the Dark Lord did not know that Snape had been in love with Lily. – b_jonas Jun 23 '16 at 06:54
7

Whether Voldemort knew or not doesn't even really matter -- Voldemort doesn't care about such trivialities as a childhood crush. The secret to keep wasn't that Snape loved Lily once but that Snape still loved her and blamed himself for her death, and he was willing to go to great lengths of betrayal to atone for his guilt. This is not something Voldemort could have figured out on his own, given that he doesn't understand anything of love, and that is the secret Snape needed to have kept -- but only for the pragmatic reason of not wanting to be on the wrong side of a Killing Curse. – Jeroen Mostert Jun 23 '16 at 09:56
2

This is the correct answer. Snape never hid his love for Lily, but didn't wear it on his sleeve like a cheap Romeo. I'm sure everyone of his generation knew about it. – Shantnu Tiwari Jun 23 '16 at 09:56
@b_jonas - To my reading, the passage immediately before the quote you posted contains no information at all regarding Voldemort's knowledge of Snape's feelings for Lily. In the subsequent passage, in contrast, Voldemort dismisses Harry's claim about Snape and sneers that Snape "desired [Lily], that was all." Voldemort, of course, is a master dissembler and misleader. Hardly anything he says should be taken to be truthful. Quite the opposite, actually! To me, then, this passage reveals what I wrote in the answer, i.e., that Voldemort did in fact know that Snape had been in love with Lily. – Mico Jun 23 '16 at 11:23
Voldemort dismisses Harry's claim about Snape and sneers that Snape "desired [Lily], that was all." - that does not equate to the kind of love that would drive Snape's actions. Voldemort had no idea about that kind of emotion. The sneer indicates he only thought Snape wanted Lilly from a physical / objectified possessive perspective, not a sacrificial love – NKCampbell Jun 23 '16 at 13:16
@NKCampbell - I think you missed the main point of my comment, which was that one should never assume that any given statement by Voldemort is truthful. Indeed, because he deliberately spews lies and distortions all the time, one should be ready to assume that the exact opposite of what Voldemort is saying may be the truth. Whether or not Voldemort is capable of understanding sacrificial love is a separate matter. – Mico Jun 23 '16 at 13:27
1

@b_jonas That's not true. Snape had asked Voldemort not to kill Lily, and Voldemort complied until she wouldn't move out of his way. He didn't want to intentionally kill Lily, because he knew of Snape's love for her. It was more a crime of inconvenience than anything for Voldemort. – Anoplexian Jun 23 '16 at 15:11

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 24 '16 at 00:22

One thing to consider is that Harry is in a fight for his life. I think he would have grabbed any tool that was available to him. He was thinking on his feet.

There is another thing to consider relating to whether his revealing of this (somewhat open, arguably) secret was respectful of Snape or not. Harry's entire picture of Snape had just been radically rewritten--inconceivably rewritten, probably--and, for all we know, Harry was honoring Snape's memory, recognizing that his incredible courage was sourced, fundamentally, from the greatest of all possible motivations.

It seems likely to me that he is throwing Snape at Voldemort as an example of greatness in the same way that he just previously threw Dumbledore at him. He is presenting Dumbledore as someone who had the capability to do what Voldemort did, but the wisdom not to. And he is presenting Snape as someone that would go to incredible lengths to be loyal to someone that he loved, at great personal sacrifice. Snape and Dumbledore both laid down their lives to save Harry; Harry could, in his mind, be paying the highest honor he could to that memory.

PG_Seeker · Answer 4 · 2016-06-24T12:54:03.523

Harry knew that he could not let Voldemort win at any cost, as it was not just a battle for Hogwarts but a battle for the whole Wizarding and Muggle communities. This is not the first time they had come face to face, and it was not just because of Harry's own wizarding might that he managed to stay alive in their previous encounters.

He survived as a baby after taking a direct hit from the Killing Curse of Voldemort at his forehead; the curse was not only ineffective but managed to send Voldemort into hiding in a highly weakened state. Harry, as a baby, of course did not control this win.
In Goblet of Fire, the power of their Wands prevented Voldemort from making the strike, and then the memories of Harry's parents took shape and delayed Voldemort from taking a second strike as the Wand connection broke away. Harry was on the retreat, quickly disappearing with Cedric's body as another Killing Curse narrowly missed him. Again Harry did not fully control this win.
In The Deathly Hallows, Voldemort made the strike in the Forbidden forest at point blank range, but Harry survived that Killing Curse too, where he offered no visible resisting spells back at Voldemort. Harry walked into Forbidden forest not armed with an attack plan to win, he offered no fight, and was giving himself up for the sake of the rest of the world.

But in the final battle Harry would have realized the meaning of his past wins with Voldemort. Harry now would be a fool to not realize that he cannot defeat the mighty Voldemort in a head-on duel with the handful of spells he knows, as compared to Voldemort's huge arsenal of destructive spells. In all the three instances mentioned above, the common factor was the invisible protection of his parents, binding to his body, especially Lily's. He knew that if there is one thing Voldemort couldn't comprehend fully with all his wizarding might, it was the unknown, invisible protection of Love, the white divine magic that could resist all destructive dark spells. And again it was this concoction of Love and emotions inside Harry that prevented Voldemort from possessing Harry for too long at the battle at the Department of Mysteries in the Order of the Phoenix.

He walked to the final battle knowing that Snape who was Voldemort's right-hand man was in fact Dumbledore's man through and through. And that Snape had an undying Love towards his mother and caring for Harry that remained till his last breath. He knew that by letting Voldemort know about his trusted man's true credentials and its underlying tale of Love, he would be reminding Voldemort again about the power of Love, the magic he never was able to fathom, one which he not only despised but perhaps even feared, and by re-confirming its existence to him using Snape's case was perhaps one of the most powerful weapons he could unleash against him.

It's more than that. Harry was taking the Dumbledore approach so to speak. Applying calm rationalization to why Voldemort was about to die. Harry confidently walked into that battle. He wasn't taking on the "Mighty Voldermort" any longer. He was taking on a mortal man. — Nora Swidler, Jul 12 '16 at 15:59

Why did Harry tell Snape's secret to everyone?

4 Answers4