Accidental Harrycrux with a Bloodsucking Snake (long)

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 155159

> 
> Pippin:
> My alternative explanation, in one line:
> Dumbledore died of the poison shortly before Harry found him. 
> 

Neri:
So you mean that instead of AKing Dumbledore on the spot, Snape just
blasted him alive of a high tower and left him to die a long and
painful death at the bottom? I'm not sure Snape is any better off in
your version. Dumbledore certainly isn't.


> Pippin:
> The only assumption required is that Snape didn't kill him. Whether
> that's reasonable or not depends on your point of view. <g>
> 

Neri:
We're not talking here "reasonable" in the sense of Snape's morality,
but in the sense of the magical mechanics involved. Are you saying
that Snape used an AK that was just strong enough to produce a jet of
green light, blast Dumbledore several meters in the air, but still not
kill him and not even knock him out? Sounds like a one big assumption
to me, and I'm not familiar with any canon that AK can do such a thing. 


> Pippin:
> It is not an assumption that an AK can be ineffective or that
> wizards can survive falls from a considerable height, as we have
> canon for both those instances.

Neri:
You do here awful lots of deducing from some very vague canon to a
very specific case. "Ineffective" does not equal blasting people in
the air with a green jet of light. And you still need to assume that
Dumbledore, in a pretty bad condition at that time, had managed to
arrest his fall without his wand. If he was able to do that, then one
wonders why he wasn't able to, say, body-bind Draco on the tower.

In addition, Harry was released from Dumbledore's body-bind charm,
suggesting Dumbledore was knocked out at the very least. Harry
thought, or actually "knew", that it must mean that Dumbledore had
died. We don't have any canon regarding the magical mechanics of this
specific issue, but Harry has the advantage on us of six years of
Hogwarts education, including an Outstanding OWL in DADA. So your
theory at the very least requires the further assumption that Harry
got it wrong.


> Pippin:
> There is no hypothesis about the operation of the UV that does
> not require assumptions, so I set that aside.
> 

Neri:
Convenient, but not all assumptions were created equal. The most
straightforward assumption in the case of the UV is that Snape would
die if he doesn't keep his Vow to carry out Dumbledore's assassination
instead of Draco. I call it the most straightforward in the sense that
if JKR takes this route, she won't have to supply any further
explanations of this issue in Book 7. Any more complicated assumptions
require further elaboration of the UV mechanism, by both the theorist
and JKR herself. 

Neri