Snape's Patronus (DH Spoilers)

One of the most moving moments in Deathly Hallows is when we discover that it was Snape who cast the doe patronus, and that the doe symbolizes Lily. I confess I'm a bit confused as to whether or not the patronus was Lily's patronus when she was alive: it would seem likely that her's was a doe, given that James' was a stag. We know no two people can have the same patronus, or so I believe I remember, but I wonder then if one can't inherit a patronus, as it were, when someone else dies...sort of take it on as one's own. Rowling has reiterated in one of the interviews in recent days that one's patronus can change forms, and often takes on a shape symbolizing someone you love deeply -- and she gave us an example of that when Tonks' patronus changed, presumably to a wolf, representing Lupin.

If I'm remembering rightly, some folks had asked Rowling a few years back if she could reveal what Snape's patronus was, and she said no, she wasn't able to do that. If we'd been thinking through the repercussions of that fully, that might have been our biggest clue to realizing Snape's ultimate loyalties lay on the side of right. I do recall hoping that something about Snape's patronus would reveal something unusual and unexpected about his inner nature: at one point I had hoped that it might be something Gryffindor-ish, like a lion, which would have also shown his connection to Lily.

In the chat she had with her fans at Bloomsbury a few days back, Rowling was asked the following question and gave the following answer, which I also find intriguing:

Samantha: Was snape the only death eater who could produce a full patronus?

J.K. Rowling: Yes, because a Patronus is used against things that the Death Eaters generally generate, or fight alongside. They would not need Patronuses.


That's an interesting answer, yes? "They would not need Patronuses." Presumably because Death Eaters themselves, somewhat like dementors but in more human form, sow darkness and despair and fear wherever they go. They would likely have trouble casting a patronus because how could they conjure the necessary happy/joyful thoughts, trapped as they are in fear? And how could they ever put themselves in the place of humility where they call for help: "expecto patronum!" I await a deliverer!

So the fact that Snape can call forth a patronus says volumes, I think, about the inner Snape, more perhaps than we thought we'd been given on the surface, with those wonderful but oh too brief pensieve memories.

And I don't think we have to wonder too hard about who Snape thought about in order to call up a patronus.

One thing both makes me admire and pity Snape...he could conjure a patronus, but he had to restrain himself from doing it for most of his life. To do would have revealed his allegiances, something he was not prepared to do. It wasn't just that he didn't want the world to know of his unrequited love for Lily Evans Potter, though that was part of it. He knew, I think, that he could protect Lily's son best by continuing to play his part, by staying close to Voldemort even though he no longer believed in Voldemort's cause. That's Snape's greatest sacrifice, isn't it -- he must position himself close to darkness and actually keep the light that he knows doused or hidden.

He couldn't use a patronus around the Order OR around Voldemort: if he had done so with the Order, they might have recognized the patronus as Lily's; if he'd done it around Voldemort (even if he'd tried to argue that he only did it to act a part) I think Voldy would have recognized in Snape that fundamental urge to fight the darkness and to be on the side of light. And it would have been disastrous, of course, for Voldemort to realize the continuing depth of Snape's love for Lily, though part of me wonders if Voldemort would be capable of recognizing something that faithful and long-lasting, except to mock it and try to kill it.

Is that why Snape argued with Harry's essay on fighting dementors? Because he needed to come up with an alternate method, since patronuses were dangerous for him? There's a throwaway line somewhere (I can't even remember which book) in which Rowling tells us that Snape had marked down Harry's essay on fighting dementors, disagreeing on the best way to do so. How did Snape beat back the dementors of his life without being able to freely conjure his patronus?

So many questions...