Dumbledore and Snape again

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 138169

zgirnius:
Interesting thread...I'm responding to a couple of posts...

Lupinlore:
>Not at all!  Many Snape-Evil people (I don't include myself with them, 
> by the way, since I think Snape has definite Good AND definite Evil in 
> his character) point out that the thing that is worse than death is 
> having your soul ripped into shreds by murder, thus condemning 
> yourself to a nightmare partial existance.  And why would Dumbledore, 
> the epitome of goodness, ask someone to do that to themselves?

zgirnius:
If Dumbledore tells Snape to kill him, is Snape's killing of
Dumbledore a murder?  (Especially in circumstances where DD gives
excellent, cogent, convincing reasons why this must be done, is firmly
convinced of the necessity, holds to his resolution for a long period
of time so that it is not just a whim, and is in his right mind, to
eliminate some obvious problems...and of course, if this is *why*
Snape kills him.) 

> CathyD now:
> 
> Dumbledore didn't ask Snape to kill him. Never.  He made it clear to
Snape that since Snape had made the *choice* to make the Unbreakable
Vow, he could not, if put in the position to do so, break it.  Their
Legilimency conversation on the tower was quite simply *Severus* 'you
cannot break the Vow you chose to make.'  *Severus, please* 'you need
to do what you said you would do when you took the Vow.'

zgirnius:
I don't really understand the distinction here, maybe it is about how
you think the UV works? Snape *could* refuse to carry out the terms of
the Vow, it seems, and in so doing would avoid becoming a murderer.
(Although I think it is a lot to assume that he is not one already, as
he is a former DE...) If DD is telling him to keep the Vow, and he is
aware of the terms of the Vow (he would have to be, really, for your
hypothetical conversation to make sense at that moment), then he *is*
telling Snape to kill him.

The UV does not take away all of Snape's choices-just at the critical
juncture, they narrow down to two (kill DD, or die).