The Gleam! The Gleam!

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 139234

 Susan:
> Pippin, I'm afraid I need more... from you or from others who agree 
> with your view.  
> 

Pippin:
Dumbledore had some plan which involved Snape going back to the DE's.
We know that from, "If you are prepared..." We spent the interval 
between GoF and HBP thinking of excuses Snape could offer to LV, and 
we got most of them. But  clever as they might be, they wouldn't work
if Voldemort was so  angry about Snape's  defending  Harry
during first year that he wouldn't even listen to Snape's
excuses and just AK'd Snape on the spot.

Dumbledore must have feared as much... until he learned
that Voldemort had used Harry's blood. That explains the gleam of
triumph -- and the immediate return to weary and old. It's still a
very dangerous plan, and likely to end in more than one death.
It's by no means certain that Voldemort will accept Snape's
excuses, but at least he might survive long enough to offer them.
And if  Dumbledore can just get Voldemort to take Snape back...

We know that  Snape was supposed to spy, but I'm thinking there
must be more to the plan than that.

The list has pretty much concluded that even when all the horseclucks
are destroyed, Harry's odds in a fight against Voldemort aren't much
better than Neville's. Wouldn't it be dead useful, in fact necessary,
to have someone close to Voldemort who would die to defend Harry
and can fight like an angry buzz saw? To weaken Voldemort enough
so that Harry can finish him?

Of course there are other Order  members who would be willing to
engage Voldemort -- but they can't  get close enough. And even if 
they could, how many of them are strong enough to resist Voldemort's
Imperius curse?

That's the plan, methinks. Dumbledore wasn't planning to die to
make it happen.  But if he saw that death was inevitable and there
was a chance to make it useful, I think he'd go for it. Dumbledore
knows that Voldemort never believes anybody is on his side. But at
least now he'll be sure that Snape wasn't on Dumbledore's side or 
Harry's.

Pippin