Why didn't Voldemort apparate?

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 187167

"k12listmomma" wrote:
> 
> > 2) Some people have theorized that there is a distance limit to apparation
> 
zanooda responded:
> 
> It seems so, because at Malfoy Manor Harry "... could feel Voldemort flying through the sky from far away, over a dark and stormy sea, and soon he would be close enough to Apparate to them..." (p.473). LV had to travel to the Malfoy Manor from continental Europe, which is comparatively far from England :-). 
> 
> However, Harry's statement contradicts somewhat this one from "Quidditch through the Ages": "Apparition becomes increasingly unreliable over very long distances, and only highly skilled wizards are wise to attempt it across continents" (p.48). Here it sounds like it's *not* impossible to Apparate over long distances, just unreliable.
> 
> Another thing: when checking for Horcruxes, LV had Nagini with him. Apparition is a very unpleasant sensation: like squeezing through a very tight rubber tube or something of the kind :-). Maybe LV didn't want to Apparate with an irritable snake on his shoulders, who knows how she will react :-)?
>
Carol responds:

I thought the same thing with regard to Nagini. He wants to keep his precious Horcrux (and dear pet) safe, and maybe you can't Apparate with a creature that can't hold on to you.

Also, if Apparition is limited by distance ("increasingly unreliable"  as distance increases), it would probably be unwise to do it over "a dark and stormy sea." What if you misjudged the distance? You'd drown. (I expect, though, that the English Channel is narrow enough, at least between Dover and Calais, that it would be safe for an experienced Wizard to attempt. <shrug>)

Maybe Voldemort likes to look beneath him as he flies if he's not certain of his destination, for example, when he was looking for Nurmengard, which is probably protected against Apparition and by a number of other spells? In the Seven Potters chase, of course, he needed to remain airborne, so Apparition wouldn't work, and, unlike the DEs, he didn't have to rely on a broom. (It would have been interesting if Snape's broom had been shot from under him and *he* showed at that point that he could fly broomless, too. <smile>)

Which brings up the question of how Snape learned to fly. Did Voldemort teach him alone of the DEs? Did he figure it out himself? Did he teach *Voldemort* how to fly? McGonagall's comment about learning from his master sounds to me like the kind of remark that's usually undermined later, and to some extent, it is--Voldemort isn't really Snape's master. But still, why only Snape and Voldemort--unless it's strictly for effect, so that Snape can escape from McGonagall and fly off looking like a giant bat.

Carol, thinking that flying simply shows great powers that most Wizards don't have (and DD didn't need because he had Fawkes)