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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 191077


> >
> Nikkalmati
> ok, I am not sure how long they spent at Shell Cottage, but they made their deal with the goblin three days after they arrived.  LV had then just recently gotten the wand.  I still don't think it had been a long enough time for him to decide it didn't work well and that he should kill Snape.  He really only decides to take that step when he is on the verge of meeting Harry face to face and he figures he does not need Snape anymore (because the battle is won).  Maybe LV had it for a month?
>

Pippin:
The escape from Malfoy Manor happened during March at the Easter holidays; that's why Draco is home from school. The trio spent the balance of March and all of April at Shell Cottage, planning the robbery and waiting for Griphook to recover his health. The Gringotts robbery took place on May 1st according to the HP lexicon timeline.

Voldemort had the wand about 6 weeks I would guess -- but if a wand has chosen you, you ought to feel the rapport. Also, the Elder Wand had not revealed any of its legendary powers -- IIRC, according to Dumbledore's notes in Beedle the Bard, it was supposed to be able to perform magic beyond the powers of ordinary wands, and even to whisper instruction to its owner. 

I don't think Voldemort decided he didn't need Snape anymore. He wouldn't want to run Hogwarts himself, and he considered Snape a reliable and useful servant. But he needed the wand. 

There was always the danger that Voldemort would kill Snape for some crazy  reason. But of those few Dumbledore trusted, Snape was the least likely to be killed out of hand and the least likely to try to buy his life with what he knew. 

annemehr:
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.)

Pippin:

We don't know how wands know anything-- but they are able to choose and recognize their wizard. We know that Harry and Voldemort can perceive each other from considerable distances, so such feats of perception are magically possible though not usual, and of course the Elder Wand is unusual too.  

Certainly Voldemort expected the Elder Wand to recognize him as the wizard who had defeated Dumbledore, and it was only when the wand failed to work as  expected  that he began to wonder if it had given its allegiance elsewhere. 

Annemehr:
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.

Pippin:

At the time of DD's death, Voldemort had evinced no interest in Dumbledore's wand. Dumbledore believed that eventually Voldemort would decide that he must have the Elder Wand in order to defeat Harry. But DD was hoping the Elder Wand would lose its powers if he, Dumbledore, died undefeated. Then Voldemort could only seek it in vain. 

Ollivander says there are certain characteristics unique to the Elder Wand which the knowledgeable can use to identify it. IMO, once the wand had been made powerless, it could  be broken and/or altered so that it could not be recognized and there would be no way to tell that it had ever been the Elder Wand at all. 

Ollivander told Voldemort about the twin cores, and explained that he could defeat Harry if he used a different wand. But it turned out that Harry's holly wand, having absorbed some of Voldemort's powers, had become uniquely powerful against Voldemort. Dumbledore says at King's Cross that he wasn't expecting that. So he probably wasn't expecting Voldemort to go after the Elder Wand so soon. 

I am wondering now if telling  Snape  wasn't itself a back up plan, and Dumbledore actually expected or hoped that Harry would figure it all out for himself. After all, it was reasonably  likely that one or more of the remaining horcruxes would be as lethally trapped as the ring or the locket, and Harry would get himself killed, only to find that, because Voldemort carried Harry's blood in his veins, Harry  was going to get the mother of all second chances. 

That would dispose of the Harry horcrux and Snape's message would then be superfluous, except for its hint that there was a way to end Voldemort's power even if not all the horcruxes were destroyed. Or course it would be difficult for Harry to offer his life as protection if he knew Voldemort could not kill him -- but I suppose he could always have Hermione memory charm him :) 

I wonder, if Dumbledore had not given Snape a message for Harry, would Snape still have wanted to share his memories so that someone would know why he had done it all?

Pippin