The Trial Of Severus Snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 141324

Elyse:
> Again, I wish you would imagine the scenario if Snape tried to help
DD in the Tower. You say that it was time for Snape to reveal that he
was DD's man. If he had done so, continuing to pose as a spy for LV
would have been rather more difficult dont you think? <snip>

> Of course assuming a DDM!Snape  still willing to reveal himself as 
> such, there is no guarantee that he could have fought 3 other DE's,
and a werewolf alone (were not counting Draco here, he was just a
pawn).<snip>

Carol responds:
Not to mention that the moment Snape attempted to help Dumbledore, he
would almost certainly have been killed by the Unbreakable Vow, which
he would have *broken* by helping Dumbledore rather than "doing the
deed" for Draco as the UV required him to do. By the same token, it's
most unlikely that Snape, however powerful, could have fought four
DEs. The moment he stupefied the first one, he'd have dropped dead
from the UV. There's more at stake than revealing his loyalties. The
UV is a life-or-death matter. So what I'm asking Sherry to imagine is
the situation on the tower with a helpless and wandless Dumbledore, a
dead Snape, four DEs (one of them a werewolf looking forward to eating
Dumbledore), a Draco who's failed in his duty to Voldemort, and a
frozen Harry: IOW, what would have happened if Snape had broken his
vow and died as a consequence.

And, Sherry, I snipped your post, but you seem to have missed my
point. (The situation isn't comparable to Gandalf fighting the Balrog;
Gandalf, though tired, was still in possession of most of his powers,
and he still had his staff. Dumbledore is exhausted, weak, ill,
wandless, and for the sake of argument in this post, would have died
no matter what.)

I'm asking you to assume (just for the sake of discussion, not as
"fact") that Snape could *not* have saved DD (who would have been
murdered by the DEs if he didn't die from the potion) but *could* save
both Draco and Harry by getting the DEs off the tower before the
freezing spell on Harry ended. (Harry would have gone rushing out to
fight four DEs, not counting Draco, one of them a savage werewolf bent
on ravaging Dumbledore's body if he had been killed by a regular AK
from a DE rather than being sent over the battlements of the tower.)

So let me ask you again: If Snape had the choice of 1) dying from the
broken UV and accomplishing nothing except endangering everyone else,
with Dumbledore and Draco killed by the DEs, Harry in grave danger,
and the DEs running all over Hogwarts OR 2) killing the unsaveable
Dumbledore, saving Draco and Harry, and getting the DEs out of
Hogwarts, wouldn't "2" be the better choice, or at least an
understandable choice?

I'm only posing this question as a "what if," not arguing that this
interpretation is the correct one.

*If* Dumbledore could not be saved, and *if* the only way Snape could
save Harry (and Draco) and get the DEs out of Hogwarts was to kill
Dumbledore, did Snape really have a choice? 

And *if* he made the only possible choice, making himself a murderer
to give Harry a chance of destroying Voldemort, doesn't he deserve
forgiveness?

Carol