Dumbledore dying from the potion (Re: Harry IS Snape.)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 141293

> Jen: Speaking of trials, I read a snippet about the Accio
> conference trial against Snape. Apparently in English law (maybe
> US too?) there only had to be a 20% chance Dumbledore was dying
> from the cave potion and beyond the help of human aid for Snape to
> be found not-guilty of murder from casting the AK. 

> Sherry now:
> And personally, I find that kind of scary, because anyone who
> could determine the situation in the right percentage could get
> away with murder.  My hair raises with fear over that one.  For me,
> it all still comes down to the fact that Snape killed Dumbledore. I
> don't care why or how; what curse it was or wasn't.  Unless
> Dumbledore is secretly alive and it was all an elaborate hoax,
> nothing will excuse Snape to me.  

Jen: I re-read my post and forgot a critical element. There was some 
kind of time limit on how quickly a person was dying from the other 
means, like within 60 minutes. So the jury would have to believe 
there was a 20% chance Dumbledore was *imminently* dying from the 
potion in order for that to be considered the cause of death. Just 
wanted to try to get the technical information straight, not trying 
to change your mind, Sherry!

I think the moment Dumbledore knew the damage from the potion was 
irreversible was when he allowed his wand to be blasted away by 
Draco. A full-strength Dumbledore could take on Draco and safeguard 
Harry under the Invisibility cloak without losing his wand. This is 
the man who told Fudge he could try to put him into Azkaban, but he 
would quickly break out; who brought down a room full of 
witches/wizards when they tried to arrest him in OOTP; who dueled 
Voldemort while at the same time attempting to safeguard Harry. I'm 
overly sentimental, but watching Dumbledore lose his wand was 
heartbreaking. That moment symbolized the point of no return for me, 
when all Dumbledore could do was attempt to salvage some good from a 
night that had gone so horribly wrong. 

So then the question became not one of *saving* Dumbledore anymore, 
but of how to get the DE's away from him. In my reading of the 
scene, they were circling him like vultures and taking advantage of 
his weakened, wandless state. The thought that Fenrir might rip into 
DD when he was defenseless or that the DE's might decide to take him 
back to Voldemort still alive, and do heinous things to him until he 
died, was horrific to imagine and yet so plausible with a souless 
group like the DE's. Even though Snape's AK completely shocked me, 
there was a part of me relieved to see Dumbledore fall off the tower 
away from their sneering faces and vulgar threats. 

We aren't privy to what Snape was thinking in that moment 
unfortunately, but most likely he was professionally capable of 
assessing Dumbledore's state, and knew what effect the potion was 
having on him. For all Snape's weaknesses, his expertise in potions 
and as a healer appear to be his strengths. From there, personal 
opinion rules, and my opinion is Snape quickly calculated the risks 
and acted. He wasn't motivated by hatred or doubt or selfishness or 
noblity or goodness or anything other than survival, and he made a 
choice to do something neither right nor easy in my mind, an act 
without a clear place on the Dumbledore continuum of choice. He may 
have saved himself from the UV in the process or perhaps it was a 
moot point since Dumbledore was dying anyway. It hardly seems to 
matter really, his fate was sealed the moment he entered the tower.

Jen