DD death

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154586

Honeykissed:
> I also think Snape is innocent and playing for the DD side.  I think 
> DD used Snape because he knew that people (including LV) would buy 
> it.  Here is Snape, former DE, Potters killer, horrible attitude, 
> all of a sudden he is remorseful, but no one but "old" DD trust 
> him.  But DD isn't telling anyone "why" he trust him.  Not only 
> that, if he shared this information with anyone else, he risked it 
> getting out and destroying the entire plan.  I am convinced that DD 
> told Snape that he would have to kill him and made him promise (just 
> like he did Harry in the cave scene).  I don't think Snape wanted to 
> do it but had to.  Snape had a fairly decent job, was HOH and 
> protected and he let all of that go for the sake of saving the WW 
> (IMO).  Now everyone thinks he is a murderer and playing for LV.  I 
> don't think this is the case and we will see how it plays out in 
> book 7.  

Carol responds:
The Potters' killer? Possibly Harry thinks that (if "Kill me like you
killed him!" relates to James, not dumbledore), but what he did is
eavesdrop and reveal part of a prophecy made before he could possibly
know who it referred to and which he must have regretted revealing or
he would not have "returned" to Dumbledore and spied for him "at great
personal risk." To state the obvious, "the Potters' killer" is
Voldemort; their betrayer is Wormtail. The enitre WW knows the first
part. After Harry's interview with Rita skeeter appeared in the Daily
Prophet, they may know Wormtail's role as well. No one except the two
Dumbledores (Albus and Aberforth), Snape himself, and now Harry knows
Snape's role. (He gave a very inaccurate and abbreviated account to
the Order, which I hope that Lupin or someone else will question.)
Trelawney herself only knows that he eavesdropped on her job interview.

It's unclear how much McGonagall and the other Order members knew,
probably only that he had been a DE and was cleared of all charges
after Dumbledore testified to Crouch that he was spying for their
side. Later, of course, they would know that he was spying on the
Death Eaters by pretending he was still loyal to LV. That, it seems to
me, is the basis for McGonagall's statement that she only trusted him
because Dumbledore did. I see no such attitude in the earlier books,
where she seems to regard him chiefly as the Head of her House's chief
Quidditch rival. Certainly, she follows his lead in dealing with
Lockhart in CoS, as do the other HoHs.

That said, I agree with your basic position: Snape didn't want to kill
Dumbledore. I think he hoped until the last moment that the
confrontation between Draco and Dumbledore would never happen. In any
case, he knew that Dumbledore had given him the cursed DADA position
expecting him to return to the DEs under cover at the end of the year.
But he cannot have anticipated an incapacitated, wandless Dumbledore
facing four DEs (not including Draco) on the tower. He must see that
there's no way to save Dumbledore. He must know that Harry is there in
his Invisibility Cloak because of the second broom. He must feel the
UV about to kick in. He has only seconds to act, but he hesitates.
Only after Dumbledore says "Severus" does his face contort in fury and
revulsion, which Harry takes to be hatred (Why? What cause does Snape
have to hate DD? And why, if he hates him, didn't he immediately kill
him?) but which I take to be self-hatred and revulsion at what both he
and DD know he must do. And only when DD says, "Severus, please" does
he finally make his terrible choice, not to die with DD but to kill
himself, send his body over the battlements so Greyback can't ravage
it, and get Draco and the DEs off the tower, away from the invisible
Harry so he can't come charging out to fight them in the confined
space of the tower.

There is, of course, the possibility that Snape didn't kill DD and
somehow escaped the consequences of the UV (Pippin's view), but in any
case, I think Snape did what was right and not what was easy. Whether
he killed DD against his will or only appears to have done so, he must
bear the resulting infamy and self-hatred and return to Voldemort's
side. If indeed he is DDM! the truth *must* come out in Book 7.
Whether he lives or dies, Harry and the reader will know, finally,
that Snape's loyalties lie in exactly the same place as Harry's. I
know I'm not alone in thinking that he's the main character that JKR
originally sentenced to die and has now given a reprieve. He's the
only besides Percy for whom that decision makes sense, and he's much
more important than Percy.

Carol, apologizing for repeating certain arguments and hoping that at
least some list members have not encountered them before