What would a successful AK mean?

[antoshachekhonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 142868

lealess said:

>Picking up on No. 2, why use an AK? Because it seems to be a quick
>and therefore perhaps painless way to kill, especially in a situation
>that called for a rapid response. This follows the greater good
>defense for an AK, the soldier following orders in a time of war, the
>man cornered into making an impossible choice. If the killing was
>done to put Dumbledore out of some misery, i.e., a mercy killing, a
>quick and perhaps therefore painless death is also a good choice.
>Neither of these makes Snape into an evil person.

Antosha:

And, of course, one must take into account the situation: Snape is standing in front of a 
group of Death Eaters who EXPECT him to use the Killing Curse to dispatch the 
headmaster. If Snape is on the side of the good (and that's how I'm leaning--this week), 
then short of faking it (and I think that's highly unlikely), there really wasn't anything else 
he could have done.

It is good to remember that, like police officers who are authorized to use deadly force 
under certain circumstances, the Aurors have been allowed to use Avada Kedavra. It clearly 
isn't seen as a surefire soul-destroyer or a sign that one is absolutely Dark. It's just... 
Unforgivable.

I come back to the storytelling argument regarding Snape: having him turn out to be what 
he has appeared to be for six books, and what he apparently proved himself to be at the 
end of HBP would be BORING. And JKR is many things as a storyteller, but boring just isn't 
one of them, IMHO.