Dumbledore and Unforgivables (was Re: Ghouls and Inferni)

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 136425


John Kearns:

> >...I don't think Dumbledore would /ever/ ask someone to 
> > perform a Killing Curse on /anything/ for /any/ reason. 

Ceridwen:

> But if he was 'dead', or nearly dead, anyway, and nothing could stop 
> him, would it be a request for someone to *murder*?

houyhnhnm:

Well, I don't find anyone in agreement with my theory, but I cling to
it with ever increasing certainty. :-)

I think Draco's being saved from killing or being killed is *very*
important.  We have seen over and over how protective Dumbledore is of
Hogwarts students, even when they are working against him (Marietta
Edgecombe) and his implacable anger at anyone who threatens the
welfare of a student.  Using a student, right inside Hogwarts, as an
assassin, is the foulest blow Voldemort could have struck and I think
it is very important to Dumbledore to thwart it.

I don't think Dumbledore "planned" to die.  He knows he is going to
die.  He is an old, old man.  He has been seriously injured by the
destruction of one horcrux and could die as a result of continuing to
search for more.  Then he is faced with the Draco plot.  I think his
instructions to Snape are to prevent Draco from succeeding even if, as
a last resort, Snape has to step in and do the deed himself.  It is a
choice between the lesser of two evils and Dumbledore is all about the
necessity of making choices.  Sacrificing himself (only if it cannot
be avoided) to save Draco is a blow against Voldemort in a manner
analogous to the way in which Voldemort's curse rebounded on him
because of Lily's willingness to sacrifice herself for Harry.

BTW, Dumbledore says "By an act of evil--the supreme act of evil.  By
committing murder.  Killing rips the soul apart."  He does not say by
the use of an AK and he specifies murder.  (We don't have to get in to
euthanasia to find an example of killing which would not be murder. 
One could kill in self defense or by accident)  Dumbledore orders
Harry to feed him what he suspects may be a lethal, though slow
acting, poison.  Is he thereby ordering Harry to tear his soul?