Dumbledore and Malfoy conversation. Is that a clue?/Unbreakable Vows

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 134708

> Kathy writes:
>     Apparently, it is in the U.S. version. A few extra lines were added.
> KJ


Carol responds:
Speaking as an editor, I think it's very unlikely that the American
editor added this speech, or that JKR herself added it to one edition
but not the other. (I don't think the Canadian edition has a separate
editor; it's probably identical to the British version. Correct me if
I'm wrong.)

It's much more likely that the British editor thought that
Dumbledore's speech was too long and attempted to tighten it, cutting
all the lines directly relating to "He cannot kill you if you are
already dead." Possibly he or she thought that child readers, and even
the terrifed Draco, might misinterpret this offer, or that it provided
false hope (on a second reading) that Dumbledore, too, was not already
dead, despite clear evidence to the contrary.

Normally, the editor would query such a deletion: "Okay to delete this
or is it essential to the plot?" And since the deletion made it
through to the final version of the British/Canadian edition, JKR must
have okayed it, which means that, no, it isn't integral to the plot.

Or maybe JKR herself thought better of it, either for the reasons I've
already stated or because it gave away a key plot element of Book 7.

Maybe Snape, already hated and rejected by everyone in the Order but
still bound by his vow, or his sense of personal responsibility for
Draco, arranges Draco's "death" at his own hands in order to save the
boy from Voldemort. What more does he (Snape) have to lose?

Carol, imagining Draco weeping for Snape instead of himself at the end
of Book 7

P.S. I noticed at least two, maybe three, annoying typos that somehow
made it past the proofreader of the American edition--a minor matter
compared with this editorial difference, I realize. Too bad I didn't
write them down, along with a strange word or expression that Ron
used, which no American of my acquaintance would recognize. Something
to ask about in OT Chatter, I guess.