Why would DDM!Snape kill Dumbledore?

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 147595

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ericoppen" <oppen at ...> wrote:
>
> I can come up with a scenario where Snape, _as Dumbledore's sworn 
> man,_ would have to kill Dumbledore.
> 
> We don't know what the effects of that awful potion he swilled 
down 
> were.  For all we know, it was Essence of Concentrated Evil...and 
in 
> the few seconds they had to confer, using Legilimency, Dumbledore 
said 
> something to Snape like:  "Severus!  I'm turning evil! For God's 
sake, 
> kill me quickly!  I can't control myself much longer!  I can 
> practically feel a BWA-HA-HA coming on me as I'm lying here!"  But 
all 
> that came out of his mouth was "Severus...please!"
> 
> The knowledge that, if I didn't, _Dumbledore would turn evil_ 
would 
> have had me launching an A-K as fast as the words could escape my 
> lips.  An evil Dumbledore would be a thousand times the menace 
that 
> Tom "I-am-Lord-Voldemort-BWAHAHAHA" Riddle ever could have been, 
if 
> only because _people trusted him!_  
> 
Leah:

I liked this idea, but can't tie it in to  DD's reaction to the 
potion in the cave, which doesn't suggest to me that it will turn 
him into the Big Bad.  Rather, it seems to fill him with despair and 
self-loathing.  If this is going to take effect permanently (though 
DD was certainly doing a good job of controlling it on the tower), 
then it would render him useless to the Order, as well as a possible 
danger -the "I'll do anything" in the cave.  So, for a slightly 
different reason to you,I can see Snape, whether he has been DDM or 
OFH Snape up to that point, discovering what is happening through 
leglimency and deciding that DD had to go. It occurs to me that in 
this scenario, it would make sense for the 'revulsion and hatred' 
which is etched on Snape's face to be a reflection of what he is 
reading in DD's mind.

What I am not happy with is the idea of DD pleading, in effect, to 
be put down. I have to say that was my original thought in a 
desperate attempt to save Snape from being ESE, but on reflection, 
it doesn't work for me.  Firstly, there is the euthanasia idea.  
Whatever my personal views on this, my gut feeling is that it isn't 
right in the Potterverse.  JKR's mother suffered from a degenerative 
disease, and I can see nothing in Rowling's comments on that, 
particularly her recent one, to support that way of thinking.  
Secondly, the 'kill me, Severus' approach means that DD's death 
was not Snape's free choice, and choice is such an important element 
of the series, that I believe it must operate in this key scene. I 
think the please from DD is a plea for Snape to carry on being DD's 
man.

I can see Snape, boxed in as he is by the Unbreakable Vow, reading 
what is happening to DD, making the decision to use the AK.  I see 
this in Snape's mind as being the equivalent of the staking of Lucy 
Westenra in 'Dracula'- a releasing of DD which also has the benefit 
for Snape of releasing him from the vow, and allows him to get the 
DEs out of Hogwarts. Grey Snape in fact.  

Leah