Dumbledore's pleading

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 141436

Nicolau C. Saldanha wrote:
<SNIP>
> I find that this (Dumbledore's pleading) is the bit of canon which
> does not fit into either of the main theories. It is grossly
> off-character for Dumbledore to beg for his own life. It is equally
> off-character for Dumbledore to ask Snape to kill him with an AK 
> (for whatever reason: it shatters the soul). I find it also 
> extremely unlikely that the pleading refered to something 
> unrelated. To me there is only one way out: Snape did not kill 
> Dumbledore. Dumbledore was begging for Snape to *pretend* to kill 
> him by saying "Avada Kedavra" and casting a different spell to 
> knock Dumbledore out of the tower: I think all the non-verbal spell 
> thread was there so that JKR could come up with this without 
> cheating. The ring, potion and cave water killed Dumbledore. In 
> other words, Dumbledore was begging for Snape to take the blame for 
> a crime of which he was innocent, and this is something which fits 
> Dumbledore's character perfectly well. It also explains the
> hatred and revulsion in Snape's face.



But this is an answer to a problem that doesn't exist. Even if we 
hypothesize that DD was dying from the potion and wanted to spare 
Harry's feelings, there was absolutely no reason for DD to ask Snape 
to do anything.  All DD had to do was keep his mouth shut and let the 
DEs kill him.  Then Harry would have been blaming Fenrir, et. al., 
not necessarily Snape.  

Besides, how in the world would DD have communicated such a request?  
Legilimency?  That would be terrible writing indeed.  Not only is it 
unspeakably contrived, it also introduces all sorts of powers not 
previously in evidence.  We have no evidence whatsoever that 
Legilimency can be used in such a manner -- indeed, all the evidence 
we have is that it most definitely cannot be (all the evidence we 
have for mental conversations is Harry/Voldemort, which is constantly 
stressed as being a special case, NOT Legilimency).  Even if 
Legilimency can be used in such a manner, DD had only a few seconds --
 unbelievable and contrived to say he could have pleaded silently 
with Severus in that length of time.


Lupinlore