Life-debt - Does Dumbledore owe Snape?

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 142392

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Bee Chase <luckdragon64 at y...> 
wrote:
>
Luckdragon:
> >
> > I do not think Snape owes a lifedebt to DD. But if OFH Snape saved
> DD. I think he would be at risk if LV found out, and if he is OFH he
> would not likely really have feelings for DD, therefore DD may have
> owed Snape a lifedebt. I think the idea that a lifedebt is only
> created in a situation where the person saves someone he dislikes at
> great personal risk is a very interesting idea.

Ceridwen:
And aside from all of that, there is at least one other circumstance 
where a saved life does not owe a life-debt, IMO: when it's the 
person's job to do it.  A healer, for instance, would probably be 
owed a lot of life-debts if he or she has been a healer for very 
long, unless being a professional renders such a debt unnecessary.  
It's his or her job to tend to the injured, sick and dying whether 
they're friend, foe or stranger.  I don't think there's any canon to 
support WW healers taking the Hippocratic Oath, but I would expect 
that they either do take it, or vow something similar.

Snape, IMO, would fall under this category when DD needed help after 
destroying the ring horcrux.  Even if he wasn't the official DADA 
teacher yet, he is probably the most experienced with the Dark Arts 
and their defense at Hogwarts at that moment.  He's subbed for Lupin 
in DADA before, so I expect that his expertise coupled with being an 
employee of the school ready to assist in emergencies, would make it 
part of his job.  Since it was in a professional capacity, then DD 
does not owe him a life-debt.

Ceridwen.