Why did DD freeze Harry? (Was: It's over, Snape is evil )

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 137564

Matt wrote:
<huge snips of a great post that certainly shows it isn't over--there
are many delicious possibilities that are much more interesting than a
face value interpretation!>
 
> 1) I agree that it is difficult to understand why Dumbledore would
> have positioned Harry to watch this scene.  I've chronicled in
another post (#136067) a number of possible reasons, ranging from
simple lack of a better alternative, to the need for Harry to see
Draco's change of heart, to a desire to harden Harry for the final
pursuit of Voldemort.  See
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/136067 <snip>

Carol responds:
I think you're trying to make matters too complicated by assuming that
DD wanted Harry as a witness. I think it's much simpler. He knew the
Death Eaters were coming. He also wanted time to talk to Draco before
they came. Impetuous, angry, heroic Harry would have thrown off his
invisibility cloak and interfered, trying to fight Draco and save DD.
  In doing so, he would have revealed himself to the Death Eaters, who
would either have captured him or killed him. DD knew that Harry
couldn't save him, and that if he didn't try to fight Draco, he would
try to fight Snape when he came. And so, regardless of how things fell
out with Snape and the Unbreakable Vow, Dumbledore wanted Harry safe.
And the only way to insure that was to silence and immobilize him. 

That Harry witnessed the events will surely prove to be important,
especially if the spell Snape cast was not a real AK. But I very much
doubt that Dumbledore would have used his last wand flick to
immobilize Harry, putting himself at the mercy of a budding Death
Eater who immediately disarms him, *only* to have Harry as a witness
to his then-inevitable death. (Poison or no poison, the DEs, including
Fenrir Grayback, would have killed DD if Draco or Snape didn't.)
Harry's life had to be saved, and immobilizing him was the only way to
do it.

Carol