RE Good Reasons for DD to die

[katssirius]

No: HPFGUIDX 156723

I am sorry this took so long.  I did get back to you earlier but it 
was 
not posted by the yahoo gods.  Your point is I believe and I quote

"Carol, still confused about how a UV could be a "gift" and hoping 
that
katssirius will clarify her position" and a quote from my response

"I must admit I had not thought about the unbreakable vow in this
way. I think you make an excellent argument both for it being dark
magic and a compulsion. I thought of it as the ultimate gift. I
will stake my life on this vow. However I understand your point
that the nobility of the gift is lost once choice is lost and as you
said Dumbledore believes in choices."

I can only assume I am not making myself clear because I agree with 
you.  That said I will try again.  I see a vow (deletion of 
unbreakable 
is purposeful) or pledge as a gift of allegiance, honor, and 
trust.    
A common pledge or vow of secrecy is cross my heart and hope to 
die.  
This is used flippantly nowadays but I bet it was not originally.  
Marriage vows come to mind and even contain the phrase til death do 
us 
part.  So a vow combined with the pledge of my life as the guarantee 
to 
the pledge is common in all cultures that I am familiar.  This is 
the 
ultimate gift of a cause meaning more than life itself.  Certainly 
the 
Order expects this of each other, Sirius says as much in OOTP.  So I 
think whether you meant it as funny or not vowing or pledging 
something 
with my life on it rather than with Rosmerta's mead is important, 
necessary, and a reasonable expectation.  I meant the sentence as a 
verbal statement of the Unbreakable vow not as a verbal statement of 
how I felt about the vow.  The point we agree on is that abolutely 
if 
you take the free will out of the pledge then it is no longer a 
noble 
sacrifice of a willing volunteer.  Now you have a slave to the 
moment.  
I feel between two trusting individuals it is unnecessary and wrong 
to 
use an Unbreakable Vow.  I agree this must be dark magic.  
Originally, 
I thought of it as signing a contract and did not give it the spin 
you 
did.  Once you shared your perspective I agreed completely with 
you.  
As much as you believe DD would not compel Snape you should reread 
your 
last post.  The number of times the verb "made" is used as in DD 
made 
Snape indicates that compulsion was certainly being used without any 
need for an Unbreakable Vow.  

I have become more and more convinced that DD's mistake are his 
inability to trust anyone enough to delegate or share information.  
He 
refused to tell Harry not to go to the MoM which sent Sirius to his 
death, now because he has told no one about Snape I imagine Book 7 
will 
be filled with unnecessary tragedy.  He did not search for the 
Horcruxes while Voldemort was still ectoplasm, has not revealed that 
Voldemort is really a half blood Tom Riddle which would at least 
slow 
down new recruits, and he did not seem to prepare anyone for his 
departure (except Harry) in the Order or Hogwarts even though he 
clearly knew he was dying.  I agree this last one could have been 
kept 
from us but then I think someone would know about Snape if this had 
been the case. There is a more indepth discussion about this at Red 
Hen 
http://www.redhen-publications.com/Dumbledore.html which is very 
good.

katssirius hoping she has cleared up the confusion around the 
unbreakable vow and started something new and confusing to talk 
about.