A Cold Equation.

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 141397

eggplant wrote:
> If Snape realizes now that he made a mistake and he must have been
> suffering from a massive brain injury to agree to make that crazy 
vow
> and if he really is a good person as some have said then long before
> that night in the tower he should have walked away from Draco and 
his
> task broken his vow and died. Dumbledore shouldn't suffer for 
Snape's
> idiotic blonder, Snape should.

zgirnius:
Let us suppose for the sake of argument that Snape is "good", and 
did "suffer from a massive brain injury", since these appear to be 
the only hypotheses under which you are willing to discuss anything 
but a future Dark Lord Snape taking the Vow. OK, then he recovers 
from the "brain injury" and sees that this Vow is a very bad thing. 
Let us even suppose that he is willing to walk away from Draco and 
die, as you state he ought. Should he *really* do so, right from the 
start? Remember, if we are saying that Snape would be willing to walk 
away "long before the tower", then really, why should Snape do so 
earlier rather than later? He can die just as well when the situation 
comes to a crisis. In the meantime, he can continue to be of some use 
to Dumbledore. And he *is* of use to Dumbledore, he would really be 
hard to replace.

Just in case you don't see the (to me) obvious value of a living 
Snape, the functions he performs for DD are:

1) DADA instructor. If yet another DADA instructor dies mysteriously 
mid-year, I think Hogwarts will get stuck with another incompetent 
Ministry appointee-who would want that job? Also, Snape is a highly 
competent practitioner of DADA, even if his teaching ability is a 
subject of much debate.
2) Dark Arts expert. It is likely that Snape saves the life of Katie 
Bell. Had Snape arranged to die at the outset, she would probably 
have died. Also, Snape probably realizes that whatever DD is up to 
this year, he may likely need Snape's services as DA expert/Healer 
again personally, as he did after beiong damaged by the Ring 
Horcrux's curse.
3) Spy. Certainly DD's most highly placed agent in Voldemort's camp. 
If he's dead, he is definitely not going to be ferreting out any more 
secrets. (Keep in mind, this is a hypothetical exercise in which 
Snape *is* working for the Good Guys...)

By walking away at the start of the book, Snape would be walking away 
from other responsibilities he has to Dumbledore. In retrospect, we 
can see that this decision would have cost at least one innocent 
life. I would actually argue that Snape in deciding what to do could 
reasonably suppose that by leaving immediately he'd be endangering 
Dumbledore... Suppose that Draco had needed one more day to fix the 
Vanishing Cabinet. Then Snape would have been in a position to 
(again) save Dumbledore, if he were still alive. 

To me, if Snape is "good" and the Vow was a terrible mistake, the 
situation at the end is especially tragic. Snape finds himself in a 
position where he feels he must kill Dumbledore because it is the 
least horrible possible outcome for the others involved. (DD is going 
to die anyway, at the hands of the Death Eaters, Harry will be 
exposed to danger, as will Draco, etc., etc., etc., we've both been 
reading this thread...) We cannot reasonably say he should have seen 
the situation coming, because Dumbledore did not, even though he had 
information which Snape lacked. (Draco's glee in the ROR).


eggplant wrote:
> But I don't think Snape is an idiot and I don't think he made a
> mistake, I think he knew exactly precisely what the ramifications of
> that vow were and I don't think he regrets it for one instant. 

zgirnius:
You could most certainly be right. It is just not how the events in 
Book 6 read to me. What we see of Snape at the end of the book does 
not suggest to me a person without regrets. But perhaps we will learn 
that Snape's pet bat died that same evening, or his favorite cauldron 
got melted down during some experiment, and his odd behavior will be 
made clear to me... ;-)