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In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort thinks that killing Snape will give him full control of the Elder Wand. He uses his snake, Nagini, to kill Snape rather than any number of spells he knows. This allows Snape to live long enough to help Harry defeat him.

Why?

Is there any reason that gaining complete control of the Elder Wand would be better facilitated by using Nagini than say Avada Kedavra? Or is this the equivalent of Voldy monologuing?

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Voldemort at this point is uneasy with his wand - it hasn't worked so well for him up to this point as he's not the master of it, which he has realised.

So he's just not taking a chance that the wand will not work properly against the person he believes IS the master of it. As a result he uses Nagini to kill Snape instead. He could have stabbed him, poisoned him, cut his throat or whatever else, but he wasn't going to use the Elder Wand in this instance.

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    Funny thing is, he was right to be wary. The wand didn't want to be used against its true master the following morning.
    – StoryTeller - Unslander Monica
    Jun 26, 2018 at 15:16

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