Snape's Patronus (was: Patronus)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 134222

Gwennie wrote: 
> I think it must have something to do with a person's fondest memory.
Because you have to concentrate so hard on what makes you happiest to
produce a patronus, it makes sense that the form it takes would have
something to do with someone or something you love. <snip>

Carol responds:
Which brings me back to Snape--not his typically snarky response to
Tonks, but the very fact that he has a Patonus, as he *must* have in
order to communicate with the other Order members. (JKR refused to
reveal what it was for fear of giving too much away.) Based on what we
already know about Patronuses (Patroni?) and on JKR's recent remarks
about them on her website, this fact has some interesting implications.

First, despite appearances, Snape must have at least one genuinely
happy memory in order to be able to cast one. This memory can't relate
to the DEs or Voldemort because a Patronus is inherently opposed to
Dark Magic. (A Patronus, in JKR's words, is "highly resilient to
interference from Dark wizards.") I doubt that a real DE could cast
one. Second, other people's Patronuses would refuse to take messages
to Snape if he were genuinely evil because, being a DADA device or
"Dark detector," they would attack him rather than delivering the message.

I wonder (in contrast to my previous bitter speculations on Harry or
Wormtail using Snape's own spell to kill him) whether Snape's Patronus
will tell Harry that Snape is not evil after all. Suppose Harry is
helpless, deprived of his wand and glasses, about to be victimized by
a Dementor, and Snape drives off the Dementor with his own Patronus,
which turns out to be Dumbledore? Snape would have just enough time to
tell Harry the truth about Dumbledore's death before he was AK'd by
Voldemort himself. At any rate, I prefer that version of Snape's fate
and character to what I previously envisioned.

Along the same lines, I don't think Snape would have showed up in the
Foe Glass in GoF had he not really been a foe of Fake!Moody, whom he
knew by that time to be a Death Eater and not the auror Alastor Moody.

Carol, who has used her last post for the day and is now reduced to
lurking again