CHAPDISC: DH36, THE FLAW IN THE PLAN

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 185331

> Jeanine: 
> And even if he had, which I do not accept, what had he been 
proposing
> to do about it prior to those last few minutes? ? What would he have
> done if Snape had not been forced to flee from Hogwarts? What if in
> the melee before Snape left, Minerva had killed Snape? What if Snape
> had flown somewhere else? What if he had holed himself up in 
Hogwarts
> and attempted to get his message to Harry some other way?'What if
> Snape had offered his memories to Minerva to show whose side he was
> on? All of these possibilities were outside Voldemort's control,
> but 'luckily' for him, Snape comes to him at the very moment that he
> decides Snape has to die. 'Luckily' for Harry too, he just happens 
to
> be passing at the moment of Snape's death.

Zara:
Voldemort would expect to be seeing Snape at some point - if he had 
not left the school, Voldemort could have summoned him whenever he 
wished. Yes, Snape could fail to comply with such a summons, but I 
see little reason why Voldemort should expect that. I don't think he 
would worry about Snape being killed because he appears to have had a 
high opinion of Snape's skills, and with good reason. Though if it 
had happened, he'd probably decide it was necessary to kill the witch 
or wizard that did it. He would put off confronting Harry until such 
time as that little matter was squared away.

The reason why Snape did not show his hand earlier is provided by the 
book - he believed it was necessary to wait until such time as 
Voldemoret was protecting Nagini, something Snape saw for the first 
time in the very scene in which he was killed. 

Voldemort did not decide to kill Snape because Snape was conveniently 
to hand. He decided to kill Snape because he had decided to announce 
his ultimatum to Harry and rid himself of Harry, who had eliminated 
most of his Horcruxes, for good. So he called Snape to himself, 
killed Snape to win the wand (he thought) and immediately left to 
deliver the ultimatum to Harry, now secure in his belief he could 
finally succeed in killing Harry.