Snape's involvement in the murder of Sirius

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 169155

> > wynnleaf
> > Absolutely.  There seems to be some assumption that there was 
a "we 
> > hate Sirius" movement among the Death Eaters, motivating some 
sort 
> > of drive to kill him.  Why?  We know of no particular animosity 
> that 
> > any DE has toward Sirius except possibly Bella.  There's no real 
> > strategic advantage in killing Sirius, unless the DE's thought 
that 
> > killing him would open up Grimmauld Place to them.  But even 
there, 
> > it's obvious that Sirius would have willed the place elsewhere 
(why 
> > leave it to Bella or Cissy, for goodness sake?!).  
> <SNIP>
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> And still JKR remarked that there is a reason why Sirius had to 
die. 
> Besides Harry has to go on alone reason. Now, maybe that reason 
would 
> be Sirius helping Harry, but it could be any reason that Dung so 
> nicely summarised in her post.
> 
> And this reason maybe something we don't know yet, something why 
> Bella and Narcissa or anybody else wanted Sirius dead.
> 
> But even if DE did not have any such reason, which is surely 
possible.
> 
> What matters to me is that *Snape* is likely to have such reason 
in 
> my view.
> 
> Nothing new is needed for that. Just Snape animosity and desire 
for 
> revenge. Do I think Snape's animosity is arising to the level of 
> wanting Sirius dead? Yes, I do think it is a possibility.

Magpie:
That quote of JKR's is intriguing, but the fact remains that whether 
Snape wanted Sirius dead or not, Sirius didn't die via pre-meditated 
murder. His death was a total fluke--he wasn't even hit by a deadly 
spell. If he hadn't been standing in the right place in the right 
room at the right moment, he wouldn't be dead at all. So it's very 
hard (I'd say impossible) to really work out any plot to kill Sirius 
at all. Perhaps if there was someone else in the room who secretly 
threw a deadly curse at him at the same moment so that we only think 
he died from falling through the veil (*cough*Pippin*cough*), but 
even in that case that would be that person deciding at that moment 
to use the opportunity to kill. 

Based on the account of Sirius everyone takes as true in canon, 
where he died by falling through the veil after being hit by a 
stunning spell from Bellatrix, Sirius' death was an accident. Even 
Bellatrix may not have been literally trying to kill him at that 
specific moment because she wasn't using a deadly spell.

So Snape could have been sitting at Hogwarts wishing Sirius were 
dead as much as he wanted; Sirius didn't die as a result of it. 
(Though personally, I tend to continue to think Quirrell's thoughts 
on Snape apply to Sirius as well as Harry--he hated him, but he 
never wanted him dead. Not an unusual distinction in HP canon.)

-m