Draco, the UV, and the First Time (was: re: Trial of Severus Snape - UV)

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 141590

> Pippin:
> I suppose it would protect him from the spiritual consequences of
> breaking a vow, but not, alas, the material ones. But, to wrench this
> issue firmly back on topic,  having spent  an entire day pleading for 
> forgiveness and meditating on the Prophet Jonah who had to ask  
> the sailors to throw him into the sea, I suddenly
> wonder if Dumbledore was pleading for forgiveness too.

Ceridwen:
Oh.  I never thought of it from that angle before.  Everyone's in 
danger of dying, and it's all Jonah's fault.  Hence, he must be 
sacrificed.  He knew, yet he willfully went his own way.  Is this the 
really big mistake and its consequences?

> Pippin:
> Could he have been asking Snape to forgive him for putting him in 
> an impossible position by refusing to let Snape withdraw? Snape had
> only vowed to protect Draco to the best of his ability; if Dumbledore 
> had sacked Snape and banished him from the school, he wouldn't 
> have had to carry out the third part of the vow either.

Ceridwen:
Snape withdrawing would have broken his vow, but Dumbledore sacking him 
would have been beyond Snape's influence.  Yes!

But I don't see that it would have negated the third and worst part of 
the vow.  If Draco doesn't succeed (he didn't, he couldn't in the end 
kill Dumbledore) then Snape would have to do it.  And if he was sacked, 
he could still have come in that night to finish off the deed through 
the Vanishing Cabinet with the other DEs.

I do like the alternative explanation of Dumbledore pleading for 
forgiveness.  I don't know if I can buy it without a reveal in book 7, 
but it may tie into whatever revelations he learned during his trial by 
Penseive Potion.  People have speculated that Dumbledore, while being 
great, isn't able to connect with Mortal Wizards' thoughts, feelings 
and concerns simply because they aren't his, or that he can naturally 
rise above them.  Could the Potion have given him some insight which 
made him long to make amends?

Ceridwen.