Harry Potter: 10 Scenes That Foreshadowed Snape Was A Double Agent

One of the biggest twists in the entire Harry Potter franchise came when it was revealed that after years of torment and bullying, Severus Snape was a triple agent: he was working for Dumbledore while pretending to work for Voldemort and telling Voldemort he was pretending to work for Dumbledore. Make sense?

There were a fair few moments of foreshadowing of Snape’s true affiliations littered throughout both the films and the books, whether intentional or not. We’ve listed ten of the most important.

10 When He Mentioned Powdered Root Of Asphodel

One of the first things we ever hear from Snape is a question that started a long line of bullying towards Harry. “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?.” Asphodel is a lily that symbolizes regrets, while wormwood is a representation of absence. He missed Lily.

9 When He Stopped Harry’s Broom From Crashing

JK Rowling tempts us towards hatred of Snape right from the very start, showing Snape muttering a spell that looked like it was making Harry’s broom go out of control.

The end of the film reveals that Snape was trying to reverse the work of Quirrell; the fact that he was intentionally saving the life of someone he supposedly hated should have been enough to understand his true motivations.

8 When He Protected Harry, Ron, And Hermione

One of the most iconic images from The Prisoner Of Azkaban is where Snape emerges from the Whomping Willow about to punish Harry. When he notices the werewolf looming over them, he turns to it and shields Harry, Ron, and Hermione. If Snape was as evil as he seemed, surely he would have let them perish, rather than almost sacrifice himself?

7 When He Appears In The Foe-Glass

One of Mad-Eye Moody’s coolest possessions is his foe-glass, which tells him exactly when an enemy of his is nearby.

When Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape enter to stop Barty Crouch Jr from killing Harry, in the books they all appear in it. The foe-glass shows the enemies of Barty, which includes Snape, as Snape wants to protect Harry. This proves his allegiance is with Dumbledore, not Voldemort.

6 When He Explains Occlumency

As Snape teaches Harry occlumency, he manages to work out a way to subtly brag about his own skills. “Only those skilled at occlumency” can deceive the Dark Lord, he explains. Well, that’s exactly what he is doing, and he wishes he could tell Harry how good he really was at it.

5 When He Explains That Voldemort Almost Always Know When He’s Being Lied To

This particular piece of foreshadowing (which comes from the exact same moment as the above) was incredibly subtle and hard to pick up on. However, in The Order Of The Phoenix, he explains that the Dark Lord almost always knows when someone is lying to him’. How would he know it wasn’t 100% of the time unless he was the one doing the lying?

4 When He Didn’t Capture Harry At The End Of The Half-Blood Prince

At the end of The Half-Blood Prince, Harry runs after Snape, who has seemingly just revealed to everyone that he is truly evil. He was the one who finally killed Voldemort’s biggest enemy, Dumbledore.

Snape overpowers Harry and leaves him injured on the ground. For some reason, he just walks off and leaves Potter vulnerable and alone in the middle of the Hogwarts grounds. A true Death Eater would have taken him straight to Voldemort.

3 When He Makes The Unbreakable Vow

The idea that Snape is so confident that Draco Malfoy will be able to successfully kill Dumbledore that he is willing to let himself die if the mission fails is hard to believe. The only reason Snape would be confident enough to make the unbreakable vow is that he knew something we didn’t: Dumbledore wants him to kill him anyway.

2 When He Ran Away From McGonagall Instead Of Fighting

Professor McGonagall is an incredibly powerful witch, but so is Severus Snape. When Snape is stood in front of the school during the first signs of rebellion against their Death Eater teachers, he chooses to run away from McGonagall, rather than attempt to fight.

A true Death Eater would have been overcome by anger and fought; plus he knew he couldn’t risk dying right there and then.

1 When Dumbledore Defended Him Non-Stop

This one was being thrown right into our faces non-stop, but we overlooked it because Snape just seemed so evil. Dumbledore’s non-stop defense of Snape seemed like naivety, and he was proven wrong when Snape killed him. We soon realized that he was telling the truth all along, and we should have taken him at face value. After all, Dumbledore was very rarely wrong about anything.