Dumbledore and Death

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 138006

Ceridwen:

> Fourth, if this was not a 'Severus... please... 
> (mindreading)kill me' or 'Severus... please... (mindreading)
> say it isn't so!', then what was the look passed between
> Dumbledore and Snape?  If things were not as they seemed,
> then a bit of Legilimency doesn't seem out of order.  
> If things were exactly as they seemed (to Harry), then 
> a long look while Dumbledore tried to gather strength 
> to continue the discussion might fit.
[...]
> A lot of people, here and elsewhere, have said that 
> DD wouldn't ask 
> Snape to kill him.  In normal circumstances, I would agree.  
> It would damage the soul.  But DD said, before HBP, 
> that they are at war.  And 
> the war theme continues.

houyhnhnm:

IMO, way too much has been made of AK/killing tearing the soul.  The
sole basis for this in canon is Slughorn's statement in Ch. 23 of HBP:

"By an act of evil--the supreme act of evil.  By committing murder ...."

Note that he doesn't specify the method and he does use the word
"murder". Murder, according to my dictionary, is killing with malice.
   So whether the actual cause of death is the poison administered by
Harry or the curse delivered by Snape, neither would be guilty of
murder if they killed without malice.  We know there was no malice on
Harry's part.  ("Hating himself, repulsed by what he was doing....").

With Snape we are not sure, but the parallel language is at least
suggestive of the possibility that the "revulsion and hatred etched in
the harsh lines of his face" was for himself.

I, too, felt that Dumbledore's pleading on the tower is significant
and I have been puzzled by it.  It seems out of character for both
Snape and Dumbledore that there would have been complete candor
between them regarding the UV.  The idea that Dumbledore has a "plan"
for Snape to kill him is just too grotesque.  And out of character for
Rowling.  But the idea that Dumbledore would plead for his life is
equally unbelievable.

I believe what happened on the tower is that when Snape arrives, the
die is cast.  There are only two choices.  It is not necessary for
there to have been any prior discussion about what to do if Draco
comes close to succeeding, though there could have been.  Snape simply
 acts like a good Slytherin.  He makes the choice that benefits the
most people including himself, without regard to sentiment. 
Dumbledore would have expected him to.

Therefore, I am beginning to think that Dumbledore's pleading has
nothing to do with what is occurring on the tower.  Dumbledore has
been living on borrowed time for a good while.  He knows he is going
to die before long from one cause or another, from horcrux curses or
just from old age.  I think he is concerned with what Snape will do
*after* he is gone.  I believe Snape is personally loyal to
Dumbledore, but not necessarily to what Dumbledore stands for.  I
doubt if he really understands what Dumbledore stands for.  This fits
with Snape being an authoritarian personality and with HP theme of the
search for a good father.  Dumbledore trusts Snape to obey him as long
as he (Dumbledore) is alive, but worries about what Snape will do once
he is gone.

So, the pleading then, is for Snape to do something he has promised
(reluctantly perhaps) to do after Dumbledore is dead.  Could it be to
continue to watch out for Harry?