The Pig to be Slaughtered (wrong! -- or is it?)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 173181

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Annemehr" <annemehr at ...> wrote:
>

> 
> 
> Annemehr:
> 
> I've been thinking about this, too.  In Kings Cross chapter, DD did 
> say he intended Snape to have the wand, but gave no further 
details.  
> I'm not at all sure he intended for Snape to be its master.
> 

> 
<SNIP>
> 
> 
> So, as best I can make out, Snape was intended to help DD break the 
> power of the wand, not to be master of the Death Stick.  Which 
leaves 
> Snape set up to be killed by Voldemort in his own quest to be its 
> master.
> 
> Canon and logic appreciated, if I'm missing something. ;)
> 
> Annemehr

Exactly.  In the King's Cross chapter, Harry asks if DD meant for 
Snape to "end up" with the wand.  The question of him being the 
wand's master never comes up.  Then we have Harry's statement in the 
final battle about how DD meant to be the last master of the wand.

As you say, the only logical way to put all this together seems to be 
that Snape was supposed to end up with a masterless wand.  That, in 
turn, seems to set him up to be killed by Voldemort, as anyone with 
even a passing knowledge of the way the Dark Lord's mind works would 
know he would inevitably kill Snape in an attempt to master the wand 
in his own right.  

To make matters even more stark, Snape has no knowledge of the 
Hallows, and thus could not even put forth any arguments to defend 
himself (not that Voldemort would have listened to him, in any 
case).  And having no knowledge of the Hallows and their powers, he 
could not even have used the wand's advantages to defend himself even 
if he had been the master.  

So there seems to be no way for Snape to have avoided death short of 
cutting and running the moment he got his hands on the wand -- or 
else cutting and running the moment Voldemort got his hands on the 
wand.  That does not seem to have been a part of the plan, given DD's 
vision of Snape remaining at Hogwarts as Voldemort's Headmaster.

I suppose we could come up with various scenarios, but all of them 
seem to lead inevitably to Voldemort killing Snape in an attempt to 
master the wand.  Once Voldemort got the wand, knowing as he did that 
Snape had killed Dumbledore and believing as he did that the wand's 
mastery passed by killing, Snape's fate was sealed.  And even if 
Voldemort had known that the wand could be passed in another way, it 
doesn't seem part of his psychology to let Snape live.  After all, he 
would assume that no one who had ever held that much power and lost 
it would rest easy until they got it back again -- thus he would 
inevitably kill Snape as a safety measure.  And if he found out the 
wand was masterless, he would kill Snape out of pure rage.

In short, given what we know of the plan, there just doesn't seem to 
be any realistic way for Snape to survive once he had killed DD.


Lupinlore