Whose orders was Snape following?

[saraquel_omphale]

No: HPFGUIDX 132910

Do I believe that DD pleaded for his life? NO!!  Totally out of 
character.
So that leaves 2 options:
1 He was pleading for Snape not to betray his trust and stay on the 
good side or
2 He was pleading for Snape to do what he had said he would do at 
this point in the master plan, which was to AK DD.

All quotes from the UK editions
Could go with 1, which does make Snape the out and out baddie but 
also makes Snape sort of redundant in the story, and I think there 
are a few more twists with old Severus. However, I can make some 
sort of a case for 2 – although this is hardly well thought through 
yet.  

1  What was it that Snape was wanting to refuse to do in his row 
with DD, reported by Hagrid? HBP p380  Was Snape refusing to perform 
the AK curse?  
HBP p564 as Snape is trying to escape, Harry says 
"Kill me like you killed him, you coward –"
 "DON'T – screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, 
inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling 
dog stuck in the burning house behind them, ` – CALL ME COWARD!" 
I think Snape would really, really resent what Harry had said, if he 
had forced himself to kill DD.  Yes, when he did it he had a look of 
hatred on his face, but he would have to have wound himself up to do 
it, and maybe he hated DD for making him do this, as killing someone 
divides the soul.

2  Secondly the whole locket thing.  Do I smell fish here?  If the 
obvious is true, and R.A.B. is a person and not an acronym, then of 
course Regulus Black springs to mind, plus the "heavy locket that 
none of them could open" OotP p108 which was in the cabinet at the 
Black family home and could well have been one of the "small objects 
and coins that Harry guessed Kreacher had saved, magpie like, from 
Sirius's purge of the house" OotP p445, which was then passed on in 
Mundungus' meeting with the barman at the Hogshead (who I think we 
all know is Aberforth) HBP p231 which might then, very easily have 
passed onto DD, way, way  before the outing to the cave.  

3  Why did JKR, twice mention the Draught of Living Death?  (1st in 
the first potions class, and then at Slughorn's party) Yes it was 
very pale pink and not emerald, as the potion was on the island.  
But we had also been very carefully told that the antidote to a 
mixture of poisons is more than the sum of the antidotes of the 
constituent parts, and that it involves an "almost alchemical" 
process. Was the potion on the island a mixture of potions? And was 
(far fetched bit here, I admit) the AK curse the alchemical bit of 
the antidote?  In which case, is DD dead at all?

4 On first reading highly suspected that DD was not dead, this was 
in part because of the phoenix rising from the flames at the 
funeral –  HBP p601 `Harry thought, for one heart stopping moment, 
that he saw a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue, but next second 
the fire vanished" - haven't we seen DD disappear that way before – 
OotP p549 "Dumbledore released Harry, raised his hand and grasped 
the phoenix's long golden tail.  There was a flash of fire and the 
pair of them were gone.'  Although, I was not so sure the second 
time through, and am reserving judgement on that one. The fall from 
the Astronomy Tower does sound sort of fatal, especially when your 
limbs are all pointing in odd directions!

5 The whole trip to the cave seemed a set up to me.  More about DD 
seeing if Harry would obey instructions or do things, even though 
those things might mean death.  It seemed as if DD wanted to know 
that Harry had the wherewithal (a shorter but possibly not 
acceptable list word would serve much better here!) to carry on 
without him. He set Harry tasks with Slughorn during the book to 
give him confidence in being able to get information from people.  
It really wouldn't surprise me if DD set up his death at this point.

As no doubt everyone will be posting stuff like this to the list, 
I'll refrain from making comments on all the other stuff that is 
currently whizzing round in my head like: exactly what the debt is 
which one wizard has to another when they have saved their life, 
which might well have a bearing on the above ideas and why Snape has 
to reluctantly stay on DDs side; and;  now everyone that Harry 
really loved (apart from Ginny) is dead (if DD is dead) is JKR 
setting it up to kill off Harry at the end so he can be with them, 
or will the other side have a big part to play at the end from 
behind the veil.

Saraquel
(Who wonders, if she has DDs weakness of needing to see the good in 
others!)