What would a successful AK mean?

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 142874

Sherry wrote:

>As for The death eaters
> being there, that is the time for Snape to come out of hiding and
declare
> himself to be DDM.  Not to kill his leader in a cowardly self-preserving
> act.

Sydney:

I'm sure this has been repeated ad nauseum, but one more time from the
top:

If Snape had not killed Dumbledore, he would have dropped dead from
breaking the Vow.  Then one of the Death Eaters would have killed the
wandless D-dore.  Then the DE's, including the bloodthirsty Fernir,
would have rampaged around the school, before hauling Draco back to
V-mort.  Who would then probably have killed Draco and his entire
family.  

It's possible to argue that it would have been more 'heroic' to die
from the Vow and let the chips fall where they may.  It's probaly what
Sirius would have done.  But I would say personally that it would not
exactly be an optimal choice. It's strongly implied in the text that
it's not the choice Dumbledore wanted Snape to make.

There actually is not that much room for interpretation in that scene.
 Look, Snape makes the Unbreakable Vow to complete Draco's task, ie,
killing Dumbledore, or he would die.  Fast forward to several months
later, when we have an overheard conversation:  Snape is saying he
doesn't want to do something, and Dumbledore is saying that he
promised he would do and he should do it.  Fast forward a little
further.  Harry asks D-dore if he still trusts Snape. D-dore says that
he is CERTAIN, that he TRUSTS SNAPE ABSOLUTELY.  A couple of hours
later, the weakened D-dore is asking to be taken to Snape.  When Snape
appears on the tower, Dumbledore begins IMMEDIATELY to plead with
Snape:  "Severus... please...".  He doesn't say "Severus.. thank god!
 Wait... no... Severus... please."  There is no transition at all.  No
matter how sudden or subtle, there would need to be a moment of "Yay!
 Snape" before moving into "rats!  I was wrong!"

If this is the Big Betrayal, even assuming that a by-the-book plotter
like JKR would place it so extremely oddly at the transition into the
'third act', as it were, it is simply inconceivable that she would
fail to show Dumbldore undergoing the transition from trust to
betrayal.  Especially a writer so enamoured of melodrama as Rowling! 
The alternative explanation is that she was rushed or careless, but
seeing as in her mind she must have been building up to this sequence
for ten years, it's a little hard to imagine.


>...We've been set up to believe that Snape is mean and evil
> and so to believe he isn't really.  So, to make him evil, ...it
>isn't what most people have expected.  

Reversals of expectation in fiction are not that simple.  Nobody
expects the series to end with Mrs. Figg killing Voldemort, or an
asteroid hitting the earth, but that doesn't make that the best, most
original ending.  *searches for analogy*  It's like music, right? 
Let's say you're listening to a symphony (as it's Rowling, let's say
it's a Mozart symphony) in a major key.  It will shift at various
points into the minor key, especially right around going into the big
end bit, which creates a sort of anxiety.  Then it goes back to the
major key-- it might do it in a surprising way, but it certainly
always returns to the key it established at the beginning.  The ending
is expected, the satisfaction comes in how it gets there and overcomes
the complications.  For the series to end with Dumbldore's trust being
mistaken, and Harry's hatred to be correct, it would have to have
established a 'minor-key' from the beginning, by having a dark,
noirish feeling and a cynical message.  I'm not against dark writing
at all, but HP is decidedly a major-key work.

It would not merely be surprising, it would be downright avant-garde
to end the series with an evil Snape, and JKR is not exactly an
avant-garde plotter.  

>And since Harry is the
> true hero of the books, I'd love to see him be right.

As Harry is the protagonist, it is necessary for him to CHANGE, though.

-- Sydney, who thinks evil!Snape is about as likely as an asteroid
hitting Hogwarts