Why would Bellatrix be suspicious? There was ample opportunity for one of the six kids to contact the Order of the Phoenix. Snape did not have to be involved with how the Order knew to go to the Ministry. And if asked, Snape could easily say that he didn't know. Maybe the kids contacted Dumbledore?
My point exactly, Roger. Snape kept the information hidden from the Death Eaters; he did not reveal it, twisting it so that it seemed that he was working for them; because he was NOT working for them, he was helping the Order.
For some reason, I cannot remember Dumbledore ever saying exactly what happened when he got his hand ruined. We knew it was going after the cracked ring. But I don't recall any details.
True, there are no details. But there is something.
From Book 6, Chapter 23, Dumbledore talking to Harry:
... "The ring, Harry. Marvolo's ring. And a terrible curse there was upon it too. Had it not been — forgive me the lack of seemly modesty — for my own prodigious skill, and for Professor Snape's timely action when I returned to Hogwarts, desperately injured, I might not have lived to tell the tale. ...
If Snape had wanted Dumbledore dead all along, why proceed with 'timely action' that kept him alive?
Just MHO, of course.
See ya,
AnnaBtG.
