Suicidal!Snape and the Curse of DADA-- LONG!!

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 141874

> Sydney wrote:
> It's melodramatic, but I'm buying stock in Suicidal!Snape. 
Dumbledore was angry because Snape wanted to quit, not just the 
spying, but EVERYTHING. Because he can't quit spying, he can only go 
on or die. I don't think its a new thing. I think the application for 
DADA job every year was Snape saying, "I just want to wrap this whole 
mess up and check out", and Dumbledore's reply was, "Nope. One more 
year." And I think the whole little game started back in the day, the 
day when Snape spun his tale of 'deepest remorse'.  Why did 
Dumbledore believe him?  Because Snape was trying to kill himself at 
the time, that's why.  He was on the ledge, and Dumbledore talked him 
down, by telling him that he had to at least do what he could to make 
amends first.  And I think he extracted a promise not to take his own 
life directly.
> 
> My feeling of how this played out in HBP is this:  when Snape took 
the UV, he was hoping to some extent to force D-dore's hand.  If he 
Vowed to do something really awful, he would HAVE to die.  I think he 
was quite grimly pleased with himself and told D-dore directly what 
he had done, and that's why the headmaster relented and appointed him 
to the DADA post, because one way or another everything was bound to 
hit the fan that year. The thing about curses, though, is that they 
have a way of biting you on the behind.... because the way the curse 
DID wind up working, is creating nearly the only scenario where Snape 
HAS to keep going.

zgirnius:
I'm not ready to come aboard the dinghy, but *this* one piece of the 
theory is extremely elegant. IMO, it is a mistake for any flavor of 
Snape (DDM, OFH, ESE, etc.) to take the Unbreakable Vow. Why? Because 
it limits his options. If he wants to kill Dumbledore, it takes away 
his freedom to pick his opportunity. If he doesn't, obviously, the UV 
is problematic. But if he *wants* to die, what better reason? Take a 
UV to do something impossible/unthinkable, and presto!

> Sydney wrote:
>  Which takes us to the Tower.  In my opinion, the end of the 
argument overheard by Hagrid was that Dumbledore blindsided Snape by 
proposing that he actually go through with the Vow and kill him (as 
Hagrid reports, that he's promised he would do it, so he would do 
it);  and Snape absolutely, CAPSLOCKLY, refused (sounded a little 
overworked...).  

zgirnius:
You don't really say...why would Dumbledore suggest this? Are you 
supposing (as some have suggested) that he's slowly dying of the 
blackened arm? Or do you have some other reason in mind? This is the 
part I'm skeptical about.

> Sydney wrote:
>  The final coat of paint on my jolly-boat is that I think All Will 
Be Revealed in Book VII via Hagrid's conveniently overheard memory, 
now in Techni-Pensive-O-Vision.

zgirnius:
I also really like the idea that the overheard conversation could be 
viewed in a Pensieve using the memory of Hagrid. It would be hard to 
see how to get this memory from Snape at this point. But Hagrid's 
memory might also work, even though he did not apparently hear the 
whole thing. This would be just like Harry listening in to the 
Marauders' conversation in Snape's memory from OotP. Since Snape was 
sitting some ways away from them apparently unaware of their 
proximity as he went over his test, he also presumably does not have 
conscious memories of the things Harry was able to see and hear.