The UV

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 155880

eggplant:
> Snape already knew about Draco's task, and if he didn't and he 
really
> was as heroic as you say he was then why did he interrupt the woman
> right when she was about to spill the beans? And it wasn't his life 
he
> was risking, it was Dumbledore's. 

zgirnius:
Actually, the way we are told the Unbreakable Vow works, Snape has a 
choice about whether to fulfil it or not. It is not a magical 
compulsion like an Imperius Curse, but a magical contract, like the 
Goblet of Fire with a stiff penalty clause (what is it with fires and 
contracts, anyway?). 

So Snape WAS risking his life by taking it (because, as they say, 
sh*t happens, so any part of the Vow was a potential danger) and he 
may have been especially risking it by agreeing to a third clause he 
had no intention of honoring.

Eggplant:
> In other words you think Snape was a very very stupid man, and in 
one
> stroke Snape becomes about as deep as Doctor Evil was in the Austin
> Powers movies. 

zgirnius:
I agree he likely knew what he was in for when he agreed to the third 
clause of the Vow (which, in case you recall our discussions of a 
year ago, is a change in my position...<g>). But it seems to me that 
he made it quite clear he wanted to HELP Draco, and not DO THE TASK 
FOR HIM, in the conversation which led into the Vow. So when he 
agreed in principle to take a Vow, and up until Narcissa started her 
hedging about of the final clause with weasel-phrases, he may very 
well have expected he would be asked to swear to watch over, protect, 
and help Draco (help him right into a nice Order-provided witness 
protection program, perhaps?)

eggplant:
> NO REASON?! Intent doesn't enter into it, Dumbledore had found a man
> who now had no choice but to become a traitor to the cause and to 
try
> to murder the leader of the good guys, and Dumbledore still trusts
> this fantastic idiot? 

zgirnius:
Where do you get this idea that Snape would have no choice?