[HPforGrownups] Draco's life vs. Dumbledore's (was: Trial of Severus Snape - WAS Re: Harry IS Snape)

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 141348

Eggplant:
>> if I had to decide between
>> letting Draco die and murdering
>> Dumbledore it's a no brainer.
>> Goodbye Draco.

>>Valky
>> Heavens eggplant! Alright if that is your
>> opinion, then it's your opinion. But how
>> could Dumbledore share that with you?

Magpie:

I agree Dumbledore wouldn't agree with it, though I also don't know that 
saving Draco was DD's main concern on the Tower.

But I also wanted to add that from my perspective, given that choice, saving 
Draco is the no-brainer, but probably because I'm looking at it from another 
perspective.  And when I say "saving Draco" I don't mean that I think that 
Snape killing Dumbledore isn't murder, but that I can easily see Dumbledore 
considering Draco's survival to be more important, and that as a reader I 
think it offers more of an advantage. (Killing is always more difficult than 
the innocent imagine...)

If we're talking about just a practical wartime descision, obviously the 
brilliant general is far more valuable than a child pawn for the other side. 
Draco would be an easy loss, Dumbledore a great loss.  But this is not a 
regular battle, and it's not going to be won by the brilliant strategy of 
Dumbledore the General.  DD's part in the story is over. He knows it, the 
author knows it, most of the sixth book seems to be about preparing for 
exactly this.  Harry has to face the final book without him, and presumably 
he'll wind up doing great.

But it's more than that.  There have been hints about what's really at stake 
in the books, and what's at stake is not simply killing Voldemort. 
Voldemort is more a symptom of a bigger problems--2 major examples of which 
relate to Draco in some way.

The first is breaking the cycle of hatred and school feuds.  Snape is 
obviously important for that, as its his continued hatred of James that 
seems to drive some of his worst behavior, and his worst behavior always 
hurts the good side.  It's really not up to Harry to make this better for 
Snape since it was his father whom Snape hated to begin with, but I think 
the fact that in the very first book Dumbledore explains Snape's actions by 
saying that he and James hated each other, much like Harry and Draco, means 
that there's more symbolic weight to Draco than simply being a poor excuse 
for a human being who is therefore expendable.  Draco may wind up dead or in 
jail, but I think that would be a very depressing and pessimistic ending 
given that theme.  The fact that Harry has already begun to view him a 
little differently (and Draco is is less focused on Harry as well) points to 
something less depressing.

More importantly, there's the Sorting Hat's song, held back until fifth 
year, but I think very important to the series.  However nice Hogwarts may 
have seemed to Harry when he showed up, it's a school that is broken and 
wounded, and it's suffering for it.  The hat explains how it was founded, 
how all the founders fought with each other, and how the fighting stopped 
because one of them-Slytherin-left.  This stopped the fighting, but at a 
price.  Throughout the series--especially in books V and VI, the school has 
been vulnerable because of this rift.  Hermione, worried about the hat's 
warnings, invites other houses into the DA but winds up recreating the 
original rift.  Three houses in the DA, while Slytherin actively works 
against it, siding with outside enemies of the school.  In HBP all the 
protections in the world don't protect Hogwarts from a Slytherin on the 
inside inviting the enemy in. And of course it's a Slytherin at the school 
who kills Dumbledore.

I don't think this is a case of Slytherins being evil and so we should just 
get rid of them.  I seem to remember recently someone brought up Dumbledore 
referring to Snape has having "come back" to them when he became a spy, and 
wondering if that meant Snape once worked for them before he became a DE.  I 
think DD considers all Hogwarts students as belonging on his side, so when 
Snape joined with them he was "coming back."  The most compelling Slytherin 
stories, imo, involve this "coming back," especially after "going away" 
(joining Voldemort).

As I said, I don't think this has to be about Slytherin being evil.  JKR has 
mentioned that the houses all represent an element and that you have to 
accept all parts of yourself to be healthy.  Hogwarts needs all of its 
houses and elements (water is pretty important), and the fact that Slytherin 
is removed from the other houses is, imo, one reason it's destructive.  Had 
it been Ravenclaw who left perhaps they would be the "bad" house working 
against the rest.  Not to get too into psychology, but it's like the way 
they say things you repress about yourself can torment you.

Obviously I'm not suggesting that the seventh book will be all about 
Draco--or Snape.  I am suggesting that a true understanding with a 
(formerly) DE Slytherin would potentially be a much greater victory than the 
saving of that one kid.  And I think this seems important to the author as 
well, since she's come up with three versions of that kid.  There's Regulus, 
whom we know turned against the DEs, but was unable to live and join with 
others (though his attempt to do so may finally come to light and thus help 
heal the rift).  There's Snape who allegedly did make the switch but did not 
heal anything (and this may not have been entirely Snape's doing--I can 
imagine the kinds of mistakes DD's admitted to making being part of the 
problem here, and that this is one reason people continue to sympathize with 
Snape).  I don't think it's that far-fetched to think that DD may have seen 
potential value in Draco beyond this one kid not dying at 16, a value that 
may yet become clear.  He's closely to tied to a lot of important things in 
the main plot.  If DD saw value in him, which I think he did, it was not 
just a sentimental desire to preserve his innocence.  He had something in 
mind letting Draco deal with his problems the way he did in HBP.

So while I can't point to how these things will play out, I really do think 
that Harry's relationship with his own generation of Slytherin (and his 
father's) may be important.  It's that future that must be put right.  Harry 
can't rely on Grandpa's generation to temporarily fix things by figuring out 
a way to destroy the current face of the larger problem.  The hat does not 
warn the school that without its headmaster it will be lost, it warns that 
without all its members it will be lost.

None of this gives Snape the right to kill Dumbledore, obviously, but the 
loss of Dumbledore at this point is far from devestating, and the scene on 
the Tower may turn out to be more useful than it seems now.

-m