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What concrete aid did Severus Snape offer the Order during his second "tenure" being undercover with the Death Eaters?

A few things he did do that I can think of offhand:

  • Probably the biggest and most important was smuggling Harry the Sword of Gryffindor.
  • Plant the idea for how Harry Potter was to be moved. It's a little unclear to me exactly how that benefitted the Order or Harry Potter, though; it seemed like a very high-risk plan at best.
  • Try to protect Harry while he was being moved
  • Protect students at Hogwarts (to some degree) while he was Headmaster, given that they probably would've had an actual Death Eater as Headmaster if he wasn't there. In spite of his tendency to be a bully, he's significantly more restrained than the Carrows and manages to reign them in to some extent (e.g. by sending Ginny Weasley on detention with Hagrid rather than letting her being subjected to the cruciatus curse).

Were there other instances that I haven't listed here? Did he ever try to feed them information through some means? (Obviously, he couldn't directly contact them without risking spoiling his cover, no to mention the fact that most of the members of the Order probably wouldn't have been too happy to see him to say the least).

Edit: I'm particularly interested in his activities during the period covered by Book 7 (i.e. the second time he was under cover, after Dumbledore's death).

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  • I reckon you've got a pretty comprehensive list there already. Looks like the only thing you forgot about was him giving Harry his memories, just before he died, so that Harry would know what to do next.
    – Harry Johnston
    Mar 15, 2017 at 23:29
  • I'm sure this is a duplicate of another question, but I can't find it...
    – Anthony Grist
    Mar 16, 2017 at 18:35
  • 'Plant the idea for how Harry Potter was to be moved. It's a little unclear to me exactly how that benefitted the Order or Harry Potter, though; it seemed like a very high-risk plan at best.' Maybe. But it was actually Dumbledore's idea wasn't it? And he told Severus he would have to tell the true date so that Voldemort would still trust him.
    – Pryftan
    Apr 28, 2018 at 2:18

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Snape in general fed information about Voldemort's whereabouts and deals to the Order. He was after all a double agent. Here a few more specific examples I can think of.

  • He helped protect the Sorcerer's Stone. While not directly for the Order, the end goal was to prevent/delay the return of Voldemort.
  • Saved Harry from Quirrel's curse during the Quidditch match. Again not directly for the Order, but Harry's life and limb seems directly relevant to that cause.
  • Tried to teach Harry Occlumency. This would have been a direct help if it had worked, as Voldemort being able to get inside Harry's head was a bad thing.
  • Assisted Draco in his task at the end of HBP. This was under Dumbledore's orders, so a (semi) innocent boy would be spared.
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    Draco did end up being the key to the whole thing, at least indirectly, because Narcissa Malfoy saved Harry by lying to Voldemort in exchange for Harry telling her whether Draco was safe.
    – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
    Apr 6, 2017 at 5:00
  • He also contacted the Order at the end of OotP to tell them about Harry's cryptic message. (However, the OP said "I'm particularly interested in his activities during the period covered by Book 7" and all your examples are earlier stuff from where it was plausible to the reader/protagonists that Snape was on the good guys' side, whereas throughout book 7 he seems clearly a bad guy.)
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    May 9, 2021 at 9:08

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