Regulus and Snape?

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 93553

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "snapesmate" <snapesmate at h...> 
wrote:
> I know JKR said Regulus isn't saying much because he is dead, BUT, 
> did anyone actually SEE his dead body? Did someone just tell Sirius 
> his brother had been murdered? What if Snape was the one Voldemort 
> had given the assignment of killing Regulus to?  If it was before 
> Snape's conversion maybe that is what did it... maybe he couldn't 
> bring himself to commit murder. If it was after his conversion, he 
> might have just made a deal with Regulus.  Something like Regulus 
> should disappear somewhere tropical  and Severus will claim he AKed 
> Regulus.

Marianne:

Oh, I think Regulus is dead.  But, maybe Snape actually did kill him. 
JKR made the point of telling us that Regulus died "some fifteen 
years previously," which means he died sometime the year Harry was 
born.  Later in OoP we find out that Snape has been teaching Potions 
for 14 years. Which means he started teaching the autumn after 
Voldemort's defeat. That gives him time to kill Regulus, decide that 
Voldemort's path is the wrong one, and go over to Dumbledore's side.

I rather like the idea that part of Snape's sour disposition is 
really inner-directed.  He atoned for his deed by renouncing his DE 
path and helping Dumbledore in the first V-mort war.  Then he lands 
this good job at Hogwarts. But, deep down, he's never reconciled his 
actions.  Whatever he did to help Dumbledore's side, in Snape's mind, 
has never been enough to equal the taking of another person's life. 
He still feels like he should pay a price for it. He's still angry 
about it and that anger finds other targets.

Marianne