[HPforGrownups] Re: Why is Snape allowed to continue spying?

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 131498

Chris:

>   I don't think LV would fall for this excuse. "I'm at
> Hogwarts...gimme a sec and I'll be right there."

Don't forget, though--if Snape did leave to go to Voldemort at the end of
GoF, to try to weasel back into his good graces, Voldemort has a good reason
to let him live. He (Voldemort) has just had Harry Potter foil his plans and
escape, right in front of the whole crew of loyal Death Eaters. His plan,
whatever it was, failed at least in part, quite publicly. He needs a
fallback.

So I can see that Snape, positioned strategically at Hogwarts close to
Dumbledore, can make a case to Voldemort that he (Snape) has spent 14 years
of his life deluding Voldemort's greatest enemy so that he will be in a
position to be of most use when Voldemort returned, as he (Snape) and all
truly loyal DEs knew would occur. Voldemort has a vested interest in making
it seem that he had a Plan B of Snape being his tool at Hogwarts all along.
So I can see that Voldemort would take the excuse--not without a fair amount
of Crucio, *somebody's* got to take the brunt of Voldemort's frustration at
Harry's escape--but it's in Voldemort's interest to save face and take
control again after the graveyard fiasco, and Snape's appearance might been
just the thing.

~Amanda