It's over, Snape is evil

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 138167

eggplant:
> Not true, one other person saw Snape kill Dumbledore, the Narrator;
> and in 6 books the Narrator has never EVER been wrong. The Narrator
> never saw Sirius Black kill anyone, he just saw people say they saw
> him do it. And the Narrator never said he saw Barty Crouch Jr die in
> Azkaban, he just heard people claim they had seen it. But things are
> quite different in the Snape Dumbledore murder, the Narrator saw it,
> he saw all of it and saw it first hand, he was not shy about telling
> we readers all about it either. 



zgirnius:
The death of Barty Jr. in prison was, of course, faked through the use
of Polyjuice Potion. The Narrator would not have told us this, any
more than she told us that Moody wasn't Moody in GoF. So the
Dumbledore Death Scene certainly *could* have been faked in a similar
way. (Either another man died, but looked like DD, or some variant
involving faked deaths, etc.) I do not know whether Cathy is a
proponent of such a theory...

However, I would not argue with you about the basic physical facts of
the case (much). Severus Snape did indeed bring about the death of
Albus Dumbledore as described by the Narrator, I would agree. But
murder is a crime of intent, the malicious killing of a fellow human
being. (If Snape had tripped over his long black robe and accidentally
AK'd DD instead of a DE, the man would be just as dead, but we would
not be discussing a murder...) The Narrator limits herself to telling
us about Harry's thoughts and feelings, and leaves us to guess at
those of the other characters. She also limits our knowledge of the
circumstances of the action to match what Harry knows. 

Chapter 2 is doubtless relevant here, and the obvious exception. But
we do not know whether Snape knew what he was promising or not there.
So your simple linear Snape promised to kill DD, Snape then *did* kill
DD is assuming something not in canon. Snape *may* have promised to
perform some task at that point unknown to him... 

We also know of at least one other significant interaction relevant to
the events, but not what transpired. (The argument overheard by
Hagrid.) There is also the possibility of additional communication
between Dumbledore and Snape about which we at present to not even
have a clue. (For example, when Harry tells DD about the UV, DD seems
awfully confident. It is entirely possible this is because he and
Snape had talked. Of course, Snape could have lied to him. On the
other hand, he could have told the truth. We just do not know.) All
these things the Narrator might choose to keep from us could mean the
killing we saw was not a murder, but one of a number of other things
which have been proposed: ther destruction of a Horcrux, or, the
destruction of an Inferius, or, a mercy killing of someone in the
final terminal stages of the Cave Potion, or a killing at Dumbledore's
own request, and probably even other creative options proposed in
posts I may have missed. It could also, of course, have been a
calculated, traitorous murder, carried out at the moment of maximum
ease of execution, no argument. But the Narrator has not settled the
issue.