What Dumbledore trusts Snape to do?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 149685

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214"
<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
>
> > > >>Sydney:
> > > > And Harry asks him in HBP, "How can you be sure Snape's on 
> OUR   
> > > > side?", and D-dore says, "I'm sure.  I trust Severus 
> Snape      
> > > > completely".
> > > > <snip>
> > 
> > Betsy Hp:
> > There you go, Alla.  There is no limitation to the world 
> completely.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> No, there is no limitation to the word "completely", but nothing 
> stops JKR ( the way I see it) from specifying in book 7 what DD 
> trusted Snape to do COMPLETELY.

Carol responds:
>From a purely grammatical standpoint, the adverb "completely" modifies
the verb "trust." Putting the words in a different order does not
change the meaning (the adverb still modifies the ver, regardless) but
may make that meaning clearer:

DD actually says "I trust Severus Snape completely." But putting the
modifier and the word it modifies together, we have "I *completely
trust* Severus Snape."

His *trust* in Snape is *complete*. That is to say, it is total and
absolute. Dumbledore is not trusting Snape to do any one particular
thing. He is trusting him to do whatever must be done. 

Dumbledore trusts Snape to teach and look after the students, notably
Harry, in all the books. He trusts him to risk his life spying on
Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and to provide true and complete
information on their activities. In HBP, he trusts him to teach a
course they both know is cursed, and he trusts him, as DADA professor,
to save the lives of anyone encountering a deadly curse or cursed
object, including DD himself, Katie Bell, and Draco.

The people Dumbledore appears to trust most are Hagrid (in the early
books), Harry (in HBP only), and Snape (in every book, with the
statements of trust intensifying in books 4 through 6). 

Dumbledore says in SS/PS (IIRC) that he would trust Hagrid with his
life. That he also trusts *Snape* with his life is evident from his
going to Snape, not Madam Pomfrey, to be saved from the ring Horcrux
before HBP begins and from his asking Harry to go to Snape, not Madam
Pomfrey, when they return from the cave near the end of HBP. And while
Dumbledore says that he would trust Hagrid with his life, when the
time comes that he really needs to be saved, it's Snape that he turns
to, Snape whose skill and loyalty together save Dumbledore from
Voldemort's terrible curse. 

Dumbledore (in HBP) trusts *Harry* to follow his orders even if he
doesn't want to, even if that means feeding DD poison saving himself
and leaving DD to die. But not even Harry can be trusted to
deliberately end Dumbledore's life if Dumbledore sees the need. Only
Severus Snape, alone in the WW, can be trusted *completely.*

Carol, noting that the absence of qualifiers like "almost" or
"virtually" means that the completeness of the trust cannot be
doubted. Dumbledore may be wrong to trust Snape, but the trust itself
is absolute.