Dumbledore and Snape again. WAS: Re: Missing Horcrux = Ravenclaw's

[jjjjjuliep]

No: HPFGUIDX 137307

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "d." <doliesl at y...> wrote:

> --- jjjjjuliep <jjjjjulie at a...> wrote:
> > But the most telling thing for me in the Snape debate is his 
> > choice.  His choice to kill Dumbledore rather than die himself. 
> > This is IMO the most crucial decision made in Book 6, for it
> > determines the path the story would take after it.  If Snape
> > truly good, truly devoted to Dumbledore, truly on the side of
> > good, there is no doubt in my mind that he would have died right
> > then and there rather than let the wizarding world's best hope
> > for victory against Voldemort die. Instead he takes the easy 
> > way--not the right way, but the easy way--out since Snape has 
> > one priority:  Snape.  
> 
> Not necessarily Julie. Are you absolutely sweepingly sure, without
> a doubt, what was easy and what was right in that situation?  I
> don't think so!  And that's where the grand Snape debate ensues
> (why do you think there're rooms for debate?). 

Am I sure?  Yes, for me--because if you read the part of my post you 
quoted, it's liberally strewn with qualifiers which point that this 
is solely my opinion--killing Dumbdledore instead of sacrificing 
himself was the easy thing to do.

> Let me ask you, when Dumbledore asked Harry to force fed him those
> fatal looking posion, what was easy and what was right?  According
> to you logic, Harry did what was easy because if Harry is truly
> good he should have drank the poison instead of sacrificing 
> Dumbledore-the-ww's best hope, regardless what Dumbledore say.
> Harry made his own choice. So according to you, Harry did what was 
> easy. 

Actually, I've said no such thing nor would I.  It's very dangerous 
to ascribe all sorts of thoughts to me that I have not written 
down. :-)  In that case it would have been easier for Harry to not 
give Dumbledore the rest of the potion and to get him back to 
Hogwarts ASAP, with the task uncompleted.  But Harry did the right 
thing:  he gave his word to Dumbledore that he would do whatever DD 
asked, and then he followed up on that promise with that action, no 
matter how hard it was.

> But most readers would argue Harry made the *right* but *difficult*
> choice because DD convinced him that Harry's life is more valuable 
> than DD in this war, and Harry understoo that. 

And I absolutely agree with this.

> Then did you notice (re-read those passages) we have very same
> wordings choices in the paragraphs describeing this scene between 
> Harry and Dumbledore and that scene between Snape and Dumbledore? 
> The parallelization are too jarringly deliberate to escape my 
> notice even in my first reading. This has been addressed numerous
> time on this list. So we do have a subtle hint literarlly. What if,
> just like Harry, the *RIGHT* choice for Snape was to sacrifice DD,
> because just like Harry, Snape is also more valuable to the war
> than DD?  

What canon do we have that Snape is more valuable to the ultimate 
victory of good than Dumbledore?  I think the argument, from canon, 
that Harry is more important in the end than DD is convincingly 
made.  But for Snape?  I have a hard time equating Snape with DD, let 
alone posting Snape is more important to the upcoming war than DD is.

> Snape made the most difficult choice to make in the entire series

Why was this the most difficult choice?

> we've seen so far, because Snape was forced to kill the only one
> who trust him, but he was trapped in the situation where this is

Who forced him to kill Dumbleore?

Who trapped him in this situation?

> the RIGHT (but extremely difficult) thing to do. 

Why was it the right decision?  Why is Snape more valuable to the 
hopes of the wizarding world than the most powerful wizard alive, and 
the only person Voldemort fears?

jujube