*When* did Dumbledore die?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 145120

After the Avada Kedavra on the tower,

Harry is paralysed by shock
Petrifies a Death Eater
Runs down the staircase
Struggles with Fenrir
Jinxes Amycus
Sprints past McGonagall
Stumbles over Neville
Hexes the enormous blond Death Eater
Skids around some corners
Hides behind a suit of armor
Races down the staircase
Reaches the grounds
Runs all the way to the gate
Fights with Snape
Helps Hagrid put out the fire "until the last flame was extinguished."

Give it fifteen minutes at least, maybe even a half an hour.

After all that he reaches Dumbledore's body
There's a trickle of blood from the mouth. We've argued
a lot over what could have caused it and that's JKR's
genius. Because what we've  all missed is this:

It was fresh enough to wipe away. 


Corroborating canon comes from chapter 8, where the
much more copious bleeding from Harry's broken nose 
has dried by the time Harry reaches the Great Hall.
Hermione needs a spell to siphon it off.

Harry's nose bleeds again as he's fighting with the
Death Eaters, and JKR *doesn't* tell us what happened to
to the blood this time, but clearly something did, because 
Harry tells Ginny he's not hurt and she doesn't say
"but you're  bleeding." 


Dumbledore  could have had magic enough to 
slow himself even without his wand. We know  that 
wandless, untrained Tom Riddle was able to get Billy Stubbs's 
rabbit up into the rafters.

The odd angle of his arms and legs, even broken bones,
could have been caused by convulsions. Dumbledore
died of the poison, IMO, some ten or twenty minutes 
after he'd fallen from the tower. He may have been
conscious long enough to open the locket, he may
have decided not to call for aid in order to preserve
Snape's cover and keep the vow from going into effect,
or because his first priority was to see that Snape and
Harry got the Death Eaters out of the school. Any
way you slice it, neither of them is a murderer in this
scenario. Death by misadventure.


There's a simple spell, by the way, which could clear Snape
of the AK or convict him *and* allow Dumbledore to explain 
what he meant by his last word. Priori incantatem. If there's no 
shade of Dumbledore,then Dumbledore was not AK'd by Snape's 
wand. If there is, then Dumbledore's shade can either accuse 
Snape or explain why Snape should not be blamed for killing him.

Pippin