comma splice or not: waste any more time, Snape might

[mick1977]

I have just come across a sentence in Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone.
Is this sentence an example of a comma splice?

They couldn't afford to waste any more time, Snape might even now be playing Fluffy to sleep.

 

[e2efour]

I believe it is (although I don't use terms like comma splice). We tend not to join two (independent?) clauses with a comma. We can use a dash (--) or a new sentence, for example. Or we can add "since" before the second clause.
There are exceptions, especially when the sentence is a short one.

 

[ewie]

Or a colon [:] would fit quite nicely there too

Or a semi-colon [;].

Or a swung dash [~].

But not a comma, not really.