That seems like it would fall under the category of “leaving evidence he couldn’t cover up”? He doesn’t command an army of death eaters, because an army of death eaters being commanded is something Dumbledore or Mad-Eye Moody or Harry Potter will notice. You don’t want to mobilize your troops until you’re ready to fight your war, and you probably don’t mobilize death eaters unless you want to fight your war against Harry Potter.
I have no doubt that Voldemort could kill Snape if he bent all his powers and genius to the task and was prepared to commit all his resources. I just doubt he could do it costlessly.
I was assuming that Voldemort would start worrying about whether his army of deatheaters contained double agents at a time when he had an army of deatheaters.
Of course the right time to eliminate snape would have been before Snape was even aware that Voldemort was considering the possibility of killing Lilly.
Well, you said he made a mistake letting Snape live after he rose back to power—he hasn’t risen back to power enough to have an army of death eaters yet, so he still has a chance to avoid that mistake.
That seems like it would fall under the category of “leaving evidence he couldn’t cover up”? He doesn’t command an army of death eaters, because an army of death eaters being commanded is something Dumbledore or Mad-Eye Moody or Harry Potter will notice. You don’t want to mobilize your troops until you’re ready to fight your war, and you probably don’t mobilize death eaters unless you want to fight your war against Harry Potter.
I have no doubt that Voldemort could kill Snape if he bent all his powers and genius to the task and was prepared to commit all his resources. I just doubt he could do it costlessly.
I was assuming that Voldemort would start worrying about whether his army of deatheaters contained double agents at a time when he had an army of deatheaters.
Of course the right time to eliminate snape would have been before Snape was even aware that Voldemort was considering the possibility of killing Lilly.
Well, you said he made a mistake letting Snape live after he rose back to power—he hasn’t risen back to power enough to have an army of death eaters yet, so he still has a chance to avoid that mistake.
If you are talking about Quirrell I don’t expect him to get an army of death eaters ever. He is at least a level or two beyond that.