CHAPDISC: DH32, The Elder Wand

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184776

Shelley wrote:
> I am going to sound like the most evil person on the face of the
earth with my answer. I have never been a fan of Snape, I loathed the
man before he killed Dumbledore, and hated him even more following
that event. My prediction for the last book is that I wanted to see
Snape die. I was looking forward to it even. I wanted Snape to be
taken down. But, when I read that part, Nagini taking him and Snape
just standing there like a spineless wimp, a pitifully sorry man, I
was angry. I wanted a death that was worthy of the villain Snape was,
not some pitifully, wimpy snake bite that he didn't even try to defend
himself from. <snip>
>
Carol responds:
Obviously, our reactions are poles apart (although, I, too, was hoping
that Snape would die heroically--f he had to die at all), but I want
to add one thing. IMO (and in Harry's), Snape was not a spineless wimp
(though he no doubt seemed so to you on a first reading). He did
scream in horror (so would anyone!), but he didn't faint. More
important, It took great courage *not* to try to kill Voldemort when
he first realized that Voldemort intended to kill him. (He went for
his wand and had time to use it but didn't). 

Why didn't he? IMO, because he knew that *he* couldn't kill Voldemort.
He didn't know about the true Horcruxes, but he knew about the soul
bit in Harry's head. If he used a Killing Curse, Voldemort would just
be vaporized and return as he did before. Snape went white as a tomb
when he realized that Voldemort intended to kill him, not because he
feared death itself (he'd faced it many times), but because he feared
dying without delivering that crucial message. He had to tell Harry,
so Harry could die (so Snape thought) and so that the soul bit would
be destroyed, truly killing Voldemort.

When he finds that Harry is there after all, he summons his last
strength to permform that last duty in a truly spectacular way. His
despair changes to determination, and, at the very last, a last wish,
a last reward, the sight of "Lily's" eyes.

Carol, who thinks that *Sherry's* reaction (and Harry's) is the one
JKR was after