How would things be different if Snape had gotten the Elder Wand?

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 191046


> Pippin:
> Ollivander would have told Voldie the same thing he told Harry: that whether the wand *needs* to pass by murder was unknown. Its history was bloody, but that might have been simply because it was so greatly desired. The laws of wand ownership are complex, much depends upon the manner of taking, much upon the wand itself, but in general, Ollivander says,  if a wand has been won, its allegiance will change. 
> 
> Grindelwald did not kill Gregorovitch and Dumbledore did not kill Grindelwald, yet they both became masters of the Elder Wand. Voldemort ought to have known that better than anyone, since he killed Gregorovitch and Grindelwald himself. 
> 
> I suppose Voldemort considered that he himself had won the wand from Dumbledore, since he had engineered the plot to kill him, and taken the wand from his tomb. But when he had had the wand for a while and it had failed to grant him any special powers (you can read about those in Beedle, if you are interested),  he began to be troubled by the thought that it was not truly his. 
> 
> So he decided to rearrange matters by killing Snape. But it was crazy to think that would make him master of the wand if he wasn't master already. He should have realized that Snape must have killed Dumbledore too late, after the wand had already passed to another.
> 
> Pippin
>

Annemehr:

I looked at HBP again.  When Amycus, Alecto, Grayback, and the other DE burst in on Draco and DD on the Astronomy tower, Amycus said "Dumbledore wandless!"  I suppose none of them thought to mention that to LV afterward, or he would have killed Draco instead of Snape.  So I'll ignore this as I consider LV's point of view.
  
So, two big questions:

1. Does LV know that the wand would change masters even if the wand was miles away when its current master is defeated?  

The only instance of this we as readers know of is when Harry won Draco's own wand from him, thus gaining mastery of the Elder wand as well.  I don't know if Ollivander knew this could happen or told LV.  Your point of view assumes LV would know that the wand is omniscient.

If the answer to 1. is "no," then LV ought to have killed (or somehow defeated) Snape right away to gain mastery.  As he didn't, then I assume you are right and LV somehow believed that the wand was omniscient.  (There might be canon for this, but I don't remember and wouldn't know where to look.)

2. Would Snape's killing of DD constitute a part of LV's plan, in the view of a supposedly omniscient wand?  Because the plan was for Draco to attempt it.  For this question, we of course assume Snape was a loyal DE as LV would have at the time.

If the wand is not working for LV, it seems reasonable for him to believe that the answer to question 2 is "no", that even though the events were triggered by the plan, Snape was too independent an agent.  

You are of course right that LV might have realised that the wand may have already changed allegiance before Snape killed DD. If he had thought of that, he'd have done better to question everyone who was on the tower more closely as to what had happened that night.  But people don't always think of things, especially when what seems to be a more likely possibility exists.  I still don't think it was "crazy" of him to think that Snape was the master.  And it was entirely in LV's character to kill Snape rather than try and defeat him some other way, especially as he didn't think he even needed him anymore.

I would like to be convinced I'm wrong about this, because of what it does to Dumbledore's plan.  It seems to me DD planned to leave Snape *appearing to be* the master of the Elder wand, even though it was meant to be masterless at DD's death.  But DD also gave Snape the crucial task of informing Harry that LV needed to kill him, but only after LV started protecting Nagini.  And that created the great risk of what almost happened - that Snape would die before he could communicate with Harry.

Annemehr