How did the one who has left me forever survive? Was: Death Eaters at graveyard

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 173809

Claire asked:
> "Which leaves Snape as the one who has left forever and who would
have to be killed.  Do we have any canon to suggest how Snape
subsequently convinced Voldemort that he was indeed still a Death
Eater and so avoided being killed off (at least until the end, when he
was killed no because of any treachery but simply to give Voldemort
power over the Elder Wand)."

Cathy D responded: 
> I think so, in Spinner's End: "The Dark Lord's initial displeasure
at my lateness vanished entirely, I assure you, when I explained that
I remained faithful, although Dumbledore thought I was his man.  Yes,
the Dark Lord thought that I had left him for ever, but he was wrong."
(HBP Can Ed pg 34)


Carol adds:
I agree. (Obviously, the statement about not being Dumbledore's man is
a lie, but it's the same lie he told Voldemort.) However, that's by no
means our only canon. As Dumbledore sends Snape to face Voldemort near
the end of GoF, Dumbledore says, "If you are ready, if you are
prepared." Snape answers, "I am" (GoF Am. ed. 713). I have always
taken his response to mean that he has prepared his cover story, a
combination of truth, half truth, and undetectable lies. We have the
whole chapter of "Spinner's End," in which he tells Bellatrix that
same cover story. 

Snape says to Bellatrix, "Do you really think that the Dark Lord has
not asked me each and every one of these questions? And do you really
think that, had I not been able to give satisfactory answers, that I
would be sitting her talking to you?"  Bellatrix responds, "I know he
believes you, but . . . " and Snape answers, "You think he is
mistaken? Or that I have somehow hoodwinked him/ Fooled the Dark Lord,
the greatest wizard, the most accomplished Legilimens the world has
ever seen?" (HBP Am. ed. 26).

Bellatrix, of course, still doesn't trust him, but she doesn't dare to
admit that Snape can lie to the Dark Lord undetected. Snape
hoodwinking the Dark Lord? The Dark Lord mistaken? Impossible. But
that, it turns out, is exactly the case. Snape is doing exactly what
he described to Harry in OoP, lying to the Dark Lord without detection
by "shut[ting] down those feelings and memories that contradict the
lie, and so utter falsehoods in his presence without detection" (531).
IOW, Snape is not just throwing up an easily detectable mental block
like Draco in HBP. Had he done so, he would be dead. We have only to
read Snape's answers to Bellatrix's questions to know how Snape
responded when Voldemort asked the exact same questions and we have
Snape's description of Occlumency as practiced by someone skilled in
it (actually, Occlumency as a "superb Occlumens" like Snape practices
it to see how he got away with his lies and half truths.  

This is exactly what Snape has been doing since he first became a
double agent. (Exactly when he mastered Occlumency is unclear;
obviously, it predates GoF.) His ability to lie convincingly, coupled
with undetectable Occlumency, is the only reason he's still alive.
(Occlumency can't save him in DH because there's no lie to conceal.)
Dumbledore tells Snape, "Do not think that I underestimate the
constant danger in which you place yourself, Severus. To give
Voldemort what appears to be valuable information while withholding
the essentials is a job I would entrust to nobody but you" (DH Am. ed.
684). And we see Snape doing exactly this in "The Dark Lord
Ascending," where he demonstrates his undetectable Occlumency. 

"[Voldemort's] red eyes fastened upon Snape's black ones with such
intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful
that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze.
Snape, however, looked calmly back into Voldemort's face and, after a
moment or two, Voldemort's mouth curled into something like a smile"
(DH 4).

Superb Occlumens indeed, lying (by omission) to the Dark Lord with
impunity, "hoodwinking" the Dark Lord. 

Had Snape not known how to lie, how to act (cf. his words to Draco in
"the Unbreakable Vow" in HBP), how to conceal the feelings and
memories that disproved the lie, he certainly would have been dead
long before he returned to Voldemort at the end of GoF. He could never
have spied for Dumbledore "at great personal risk" or survived to
become Potions master. 

But Voldemort had too high an opinion of himself and his skill as a
Legilimens to suspect that Snape, however clever and cunning and
talented he might be, could outsmart him or that Snape's skill as an
Occlumens (which he may not even have known about, since Snape's
Occlumency, unlike Draco's, is undetectable) could possibly be
superior to his skill as a Legilimens.

The coward Karkaroff runs away and is killed by the DEs he betrayed.
Snape, who chooses to stay at Hogwarts and return to LV only on
Dumbledore's orders, faces his, tells his half-truths, and survives.

Carol, wondering if her answers to questions about DH are also hidden
in the text, waiting to be discovered