[HPforGrownups] Re: Heroes and Not - What should Snape Have Done?.

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 145260

CH3ed:
I have to say I agree with Steve. The end does justify the mean in 
this case even if we assume DDM!Snape. Or even if it is ESS!Snape, 
what happened on the tower was the best of a rotten thru-and-thru 
situation. The action doesn't end with Snape killing DD or Snape 
turning his wand on the DEs. If the UV kicks in the moment Snape 
turns his wand on the DEs to refuse to complete the UV (complete 
Draco's mission) it is very possible Snape'd just drop dead then and 
there. DD dies anyway, and Harry is released from the bind and jumps 
at the DEs the prolonged presence of the DEs in the school and the 
wearing off of the felix felicis would probably mean the DEs' curses 
would start hitting Ron, Hermione and Ginny instead of just missing 
them. 
 


Sherry now:

I'm quite sure I said this long ago, in response to the question of what
should Snape have done.  But if I did, it was probably in the immediate post
HBP deluge.  so, here i go again.

DDM Snape people, ask what should Snape have done.  if he didn't kill DD,
and the effects of the UV kick in, then the death eaters would have killed
Dumbledore, Harry would have jumped into the fray and been killed; death
eaters would have overrun the school.  I ask you, canon please?  Do we
indeed *know* that is what would have happened?

i believe that Harry notes that Dumbledore is sounding stronger toward the
end of the conversation with Draco.  Excuse me, if I'm not remembering
correctly, but i've only read the tower scene once so far.  Dumbledore is
also the greatest wizard alive, possibly of all time.  i cannot believe that
he was incapable of summoning back his wand with a cute little nonverbal
spell, and effectively dealing with the death eaters who were on the tower.
We actually have no proof, either way, of what would have happened if Snape
had not killed Dumbledore.  i believe that if he was truly Dumbledore's man,
through and through, he should have risked his own neck to save Dumbledore.
We have no actual proof that Dumbledore could not have recovered from the
potion in the cave, and in fact, he may have already been getting stronger.
I'd bet on his power over those death eaters any day.

So, i guess my answer is that though DDM Snape folks always say, if Snape
didn't kill DD ... and go on about how everyone would have been killed on
the tower and death eaters rampaging through the school, I have to ask your
own questions back.  How do you know that?  Because we really can't know
what would have happened.  I see evidence that Dumbledore was recovering and
could have dealt well with the situation.  I guess none of us will know till
book seven.  Remember our Christmas present from JKR last year?  The
announcement of the release of HBP.  How I wish we'd be getting a similar
announcement soon.  alas, two more years.

sherry