Skip to main content

harry potter - Why was Severus Snape allowed to be a Death Eater?



It's been a while since I read the books, but I thought the Death Eaters were all pure-bloods and only associated with other pure-bloods. How was a half-blood allowed to be almost royalty in Voldemort's court? Was it just because his position at Hogwarts allowed him otherwise unavailable access? Maybe I just assumed the Death Eaters were all pure-bloods. Like I said, it's been a while since I read them, and the movies didn't seem to cover this in that canon.


I know this looks like a lot of questions, but it's all about Snape being so trusted even though he wasn't "pure."


POST EDITED : I did not mean to include Voldemort as a pure-blood. Sloppy editing is my only excuse...



Answer





OP: "I thought the Deatheaters and Lord Voldemort were all Pure-bloods"




Well, to start off, Lord Voldemort was a half-blood. Tom Riddle, Sr. was a Muggle :)



More importantly, who is and isn't invited to DEs wasn't a democratic vote. Lord Voldemort decided. To quote from a related discussion, JKR patterned blood purity ideas on Nazis, and in Nazi Germany, the biggest rule about who was Jewish was "whatever boss says":



These events (half-Jew Erhard Milch being issued a German Blood Certificate) prompted Hermann Göring to say famously "Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich" ("I decide who is a Jew")



And Voldemort (aside from being half-blood) wasn't too picky at the expense of practicality - heck, he employed Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf. As far as Snape, he had a host of reasons to pick him:




  • Devoted to Dark Arts ("up to his eyeballs in dark arts" as Sirius said)





  • Master Potioner




  • Overall talented and powerful wizard




  • Snape was friends with proto-DEs (Mulciber, etc...) and enemies with proto-OOTP (Marauders).




  • Shared with Voldemort not only having a Muggle father, but a bitter resentment of that father (Severus and Tobias had poor relation)





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

game of thrones - Is Syrio Forel dead?

In the episode 'The Pointy End' (Season 1 Episode 8) when Arya runs from the Lannister guards you hear the sound of a sword being dropped (around 4:56): [embedded content] After that neither Syrio or Ser Meryn Trant is never mentioned or seen in the show again, except when Arya mentions to the Hound that Ser Meryn Trant killed Syrio. Is there any mention in the books that Syrio actually dies?
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Difference between elves and dwarves blacksmithing in the Lord of the Rings

Both the elves and the dwarves were famous for their metal work in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but what is the difference between what they made, and which one had the better skill of making amours and swords? Answer James Christopher's answer sums up the second part of your question well, but as to the difference in what they made, a little more detail is needed. Once the Elves learned to forge with steel, the shape of the sword changed, now being able to take on the form of a great broadsword or a light and agile curved sword. Additionally, they took great pride in decorating their swords. As we see in the Lord of the Rings , some swords like Sting had magical properties such as glowing blue when orcs are near. As far as the use of Mithril, lotr.wikia has two contradictory passages: Thus, Elven blades became renowned as great weapons, capable of performing deeds beyond the skill of their handlers and were even more glorious when the use of Mithril was allowed to the Elves. ...
Post a Comment
Read more