Snapes love for Lily (Was: DH rambles and crows eating)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 172733

John wrote:
>
> This more of an idea post than a reply to any particular post. I 
think the irony of Snape's death is that he was the head of Slytherin
house and he was eaten by a Snake (Slytherin's house mascot). 
f
Carol:
He was bitten by Nagini, but not eaten by her. She followed Voldemort
out (Voldie thought he was safe from death after killing Snape), and
she was killed by Neville before she could eat anybody else. In any
case, Harry could not have exchanged those last few words or obtained
the memories if he'd been eaten.

The scene is fraught with irony, I agree. Voldemort kills the wrong
man; Snape was trying to rush out to find Harry but would not have
found him because he's already in the shack; Harry probably would not
have listened to him in any case. Snape had to die as he did, killed
(but not eaten!) by the symbol of his own house, or he could not have
had that last moment with Harry, that last look in "Lily's" eyes but
also a moment of something like understanding. Harry feels no joy in
seeing the hated Snape die. he's in shock, but he's also drawn to him.
Understanding arrives too late, but Snape has done what he was trying
to do, communicating to Harry that he, too, has to die, willingly
sacrificing himself. The final irony is that Harry, unlike snape, only
thinks he has to die.

Carol, who would never have anticipated this scene and hates Nagini
but wonders how anyone can fail to see that he's a better man than
Dumbledore