Snape Survey, Snapeity, Dumbledore's sacrifice.

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 149183

 
> Magpie:
> But the theory here was not that Snape was going to lead the DEs, 
> but that he was making himself the #1 wizard of the world by killing 
> DD and letting Harry kill Voldemort.  Managing a ragtag group of 
> criminals does not qualify for that.  Also I gave you examples in 
> canon where the DEs are not that respectful of Snape.  Yes, they 
> stand back in this one scene, but as I said I think that's due to 
> the situation more than Snape's threat--especially Snape's threat to 
> them.  Snape himself has to yell at them to tell them to follow 
> orders (the Dark Lord's orders--he appeals to their master).  If 
> Voldemort died Snape would, imo, still have to appeal to the idea 
> they were doing the Dark Lord's wishes.  Plus, as I said in another 
> post, I see no signs that Snape's goal is to take over the world.  
> He's a lot of things, but he doesn't seem like a megalomaniac.  If 
> he wanted to lead the DEs he could have attempted it earlier.

Pippin:
He certainly could. The DE's were leaderless after Voldemort's fall,
looking for someone to rally around, according to Snape. If he wanted 
to be that person, why didn't he step forward? He could have disposed
of Dumbledore at any time in the last fifteen years -- all it would take
is a few drops of something in the evening pumpkin juice and DD'd go 
quietly to sleep and never wake up again. Why wait until Voldemort
has returned and control of the ministry has passed from Fudge to 
the much more dangerous Scrimgeour? 


For Dumbledore to feel betrayed when he is pleading, he would have had
to have expected Snape to do something differently the moment he
arrived. But that opens the door to legilimency and/or  a prior arrangement,

Alla's argument that Dumbledore would have expected to fight for him
seems to carry with it an unstated premise: that there was  a prior agreement
or understanding that if Snape had a choice between fighting for the Order
and blowing his cover, he would blow his cover.

But I am not sure that any such understanding existed. Dumbledore knew
there might be trouble, yet he didn't have Snape on patrol.  Dumbledore
froze Harry so he couldn't fight. Hagrid said straight out that Snape
would have had to preserve his cover.  Wasn't the understanding just as
likely to be the opposite, that Snape must preserve his cover even if it
meant not fighting for Dumbledore?

Dumbledore did say that to defeat Voldemort, someone must be prepared
to fight what seems to be a losing battle. But *Voldemort* was not on the
tower. If Dumbledore thought Snape would be needed for the final 
battle, why throw his life away on the tower?

Pippin