[HPforGrownups] The Death of Snape?

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 41846

Jackie theorized

> What does everyone think about the possibility of Snape's death in book
> 5? At the end of GoF, Voldemort mentions the six missing death eaters -
> three dead, one too afraid to come back, one who "has left [his]
> service forever - he will be killed, of course," and his most loyal
> servant. Everyone pretty much assumes those three to be Karkaroff,
> Snape, and Crouch, in that order - so, is this a red herring, or can we
> realistically expect some very bad things to happen to Snape in book 5?
> I know this idea was sort of mentioned earlier, but I don't think this
> particular aspect was covered in depth... Could *Snape* be the death
> that's horrible to write?

A couple of thoughts.

One--I'd meant to address this in a Snape thread earlier, but I think Snape
would survive going back to Voldemort, if such was his task. The reason
being that Voldemort has just managed to come off worse against Harry again,
and this time in front of the DeathEaters who were loyal enough to show up.
He very badly needs a trump card. Snape, even *if* he is the one who "will
be killed, of course," *is* a highly placed member of the administration of
Hogwarts. A highly useful tool and a good thing to be able to show one's
followers. I don't think Voldemort cares what his followers think, but he
probably very much cares if they believe in his power, and his power has
just had some very bad PR. Snape arriving and offering his services might
have been just the thing Voldemort needed at that point.

Not to say that Voldemort would not have made him pay---I bet if this was
the scenario, it hurt Snape rather a lot--but I think that if Snape had been
the "one who has left me forever" (whatever the exact words), the situation
may have saved him.

Two--I think Snape will die, I really do. In the truest tradition of
anti-heroes or deathbed conversions or romantic endings (romance in the old
sense, the kind that involves lots of quiet suffering and loss and not
necessarily anything physical at all). Snape, it seems to me, has built up
too much emotional baggage, lives too much in the past, allows his present
to be shaped by that past too much, to ever be able to shake it off and
stride forward. Unless this has all been a terribly well-done act, his
present existence has been a waiting to address the effects of his past
existence, and once that is done, he will have no purpose.

But. That said, I don't think he'll die in book 5. I think the roots of
Snape's past run too deep and tangled for him to be discard-able 5/7 of the
way through the story. I don't think he'll die until book 7.

Three--I can't remember who posted it, it was a loooong time ago, but as for
the identification of the DeathEaters that Voldemort is referring to, very
convincing cases have been made for all cases--Snape being the one gone
forever (which is what we are surely led to think, making it suspect on the
face of it), Snape being the coward (my personal favorite, again partly
because we are so led to believe this is Karkaroff--Voldemort would easily
buy that Snape is sniveling behind Dumbledore's robes in abject fear of
him), Snape being the faithful servant (which makes me shiver, since the
fact that Snape has thus far been acting to protect Harry, albeit nastily,
*could* be a red herring in itself). It might be worth a search of the
archives, or maybe that ancient poster is still around (Pippin? Was it
you?).

So, basically, Snape's fate in book 5 and/or beyond is based on what his
task was; what his task was will probably be based on which of those
DeathEaters Voldemort considered Snape to be; and we don't know which one
that is.

Bravo to JKR, the queen of words, who can write what seems to be so very
straightforward until you look closer trying to pin something down! It
inevitably becomes a case of trying to nail smoke to the wall.

--Amanda, premier Snapologist