DD Not Dead

[exodusts]

No: HPFGUIDX 148444

> Gryffindor Chaser adds:
> I've read other people's opinions on whether Snape said a nonverbal 
> spell while doing the AK curse on DD. So, collaborating what others
> have said, and what I have read, I think that yes, Snape used the 
> AK curse, but since he didn't mean it, it still produced a green 
> flash, but only knocked DD off his feet, in the air and over the 
> ledge. In this way, it is possible, as when Harry used the 
> Unforgivable curse against Bellatrix in OotP, that the curse still
> works, but not to its fullest extent.


Exodusts:

This interpretation of the events is good, because it explains why 
JKR wrote the spectacular fall into the story. As people who have 
argued in favour of DD-is-alive put it: we know that AK just snuffs 
out life where it is. JKR didn't need to have DD tumble off the 
tower, therefore there is something suspicious about the whole death, 
therefore it was staged. But consider if Snape really is going to be 
later revealed to be a good-guy. JKR knows that if she has him just 
AK DD without noticeable difficulty, very probably some people will 
be unhappy with his morality/lack of feeling (whether or not DD was 
mortally poisoned and Snape knew it). So she puts DD on top of the 
tower, so that it can always remain ambiguous whether Snape really, 
really meant it, even if he *meant* to mean it. And DD is killed for 
certain by the fall.

Plus it IS more dramatic to have him take a dive.