clarification

[gmonkey42]

I don't mean to be snotty but I've seen in several places the assertion that Snape died from Nagini's venom. He didn't, he bled to death from the bite wound. A venom-protection potion wouldn't have saved him. In fact, maybe he'd already used one and that's the only reason why he stayed alive long enough to give Harry his memories.

Question: Snape must have deliberately made his memories leak out of his head, right? I can't imagine it's normal to have them leak out (in a creepy, disturbing way that reminded me strongly of the Black Goo from X-Files*) right before you die. He was definitely selective about which ones Harry got. Which is good because otherwise Harry might have been looking into a Pensieve scene of Snape thinking about Harry's mum while beating off in the shower. That might have been a little bit traumatizing. For the readers, mainly.


* I had no idea what that was supposed to be until the book said what it was. I really hope they don't make it look like that in the movie. It's going to be bad enough seeing Snape bitten and bleeding. I could barely watch in OotP when Nagini attacked Mr. Weasley. I hope they just have it come out of his ear or something.