Mind-linked!Snape (Part IV: TBAY conclusion)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 117033


Neri wrote:
> > 
> > Actually the correct words are "One who I believe has left me  >
forever. He will be killed, of course." The passive tense might be  >
important here. It might imply that Snape will be killed by an 
automatic control device (his dark mark?) rather than by Voldy or a 
DE squad.
> 
Alla responded:
> 
> I am also wondering about "of course" part.  I mean yes, Voldie is a 
> big show - off, but could it be that he is indeed that confident
that Dark Mark is guranteed kill - kill situation.

Carol notes:
If the Dark Mark automatically killed traitors to the DE cause, Snape
would already be dead. Instead, he is "merely" burned when he hears
Voldemort's name or is otherwise reminded of his disloyalty
(Crouch!Moody in GoF). I agree that "of course" is yet another
indication of Voldie's overconfidence and not a statement of fact.
(Also, I think he would say something melodramatic like "He will die a
slow, cruel death for daring to violate his oath" if death were the
automatic consequence of disloyalty.)

I don't think the passive voice is significant except that, like most
bureaucrats and people of that ilk, Voldemort deliberately uses it to
 obscure his meaning--he doesn't say when or how or by whom the one he
believes has left him will be killed (notice that he remains vague
there as well, not wanting his DEs, or at least not all of them, to
know the identity of the missing Death Eaters).

There is, of course, the possibility that he has changed his mind
about Snape and for whatever reason is now convinced of his loyalty,
or that he's biding his time before ordering Snape's murder, which is
neither his top priority nor particularly easy to accomplish with
Snape spending so much time at Hogwarts. Perhaps he finds contact with
Snape useful in some way (the double agent theory involving a Malfoy
connection).

And there's also a point I think is important, though no one else
seems to: Voldemort is not a prophet, and just because he says that
the renegade DE (presumably Snape) will die doesn't mean that he
really will. That's only what Voldemort wants and believes at that
point in the series. If he now suspects Snape of helping the Order in
the MoM debacle, he may be back to the "he will be killed" point of
view. The problem, of course, is that with only some half dozen DEs
left to him, that's going to be rather difficult to accomplish.

Regarding Mind-Sharing!Snape (aka VASSAL), which I realize is a
separate thread, I don't think Voldie would teach his DEs Occlumency,
which would give them the ability to shield their emotions and
memories from his view, much less Legilimency, which is the source of
his power over them. It seems much more probable that Snape learned
Occlumency from Dumbledore, building on a natural talent that DD
perceived, as a means of self-protection when he first became a spy
for Dumbledore. As others have pointed out, we have no solid evidence
that Snape is a Legilimens as well as an Occlumens. He had to use a
Legilimency spell on Harry.

Carol, with apologies for combining two threads