Of Caves and Tarot Cards

[mt3t3l1]

No: HPFGUIDX 135527

Oops! I just realized that I completely misunderstood your point in 
this section.

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> 
wrote:
 
> Merrylinks:
> > My read on DD's begging and pleading in the cave is that it's not
> > for himself, but for the safety of the students. If you are right,
> > if the potion magnifies a person's greatest fears and guilts, sort
> > of like an extreme dementor attack, then DD's constant pleading is
> > consistent with that. On the Tower he acts more in character, but
> > recall that when DD says, "Severus...", it says, "The sound 
> > frightened Harry beyond anything he had experienced all evening.
> > For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading." Pleading, not for
> > himself, but for the safety of the students, just as he had in an 
> > extreme way in the cave.
>  
> > What do you think?
> 
> Jen: I think I'm getting confused <g>! Why would he be pleading 
with 
> Snape for the safety of the students? That moment between them was 
> very personal. Dumbledore just realized Snape was not trustworthy 
> and betrayed him, or Dumbledore is appealing to Snape to do what he 
> must and make a show of killing him. There are probably other 
> options as well. But I do think it was a moment between the two of 
> them, and had everything to do with their personal relationship.
> 
> Jen


Let me try again. When Dumbledore silently asks Snape to kill him, 
his motivation is that by allowing himself to die, he will be 
protecting the students. I don't believe that DD is casting a Lily-
Potter-like protective charm. Rather, he realizes that the immediate 
objective of Draco and the Death Eaters' invasion of the school is to 
kill him. Once they do, it will be "Mission Accomplished" and they 
will all leave. Dumbledore has made a serious error when he doesn't 
listen to Harry's information about the dangerous thing Draco has 
fixed. On the Tower, by asking Snape to kill him, DD is able to make 
a sort of atonement for his error, thus protecting the students from 
further harm at the wands of the Death Eaters. 

It is indeed a very personal moment between him and Snape. Dumbledore 
is sharing with Snape the thing that matters most to him (the safety 
of the students) and Snape is responding with courageous loyalty to 
Dumbledore's direct order. I hope that makes it a bit clearer.

Merrylinks