DDM!Snape & the UV
juli17 at aol.com
juli17 at aol.com
Mon Mar 20 01:42:37 UTC 2006
No: HPFGUIDX 149821
> Eggplant:
> > Snape had a decision to make, he could fight the Death Eaters and
> > possibly kill them OR he could murder Dumbledore. Snape, the man
> > you ask us to admire decided the moral thing to do is murder
> > Dumbledore. I don't think so.
>
Julie:
I don't want to speak for all DDM!Snapers, but what I saw on the Tower
was a rock and a hard place scenario for Snape, the classic no-win
situation, that of choosing a lesser evil. There was no possible *good*
outcome. Someone--or someones--was going to die, and Snape was
in unenviable position of deciding who would live and who would die. It
was a situation I believe he and Dumbledore made every effort to avoid,
but, alas, it proved impossible to avoid. So Snape could either...
1. *Try* to save Dumbledore by killing at least 4 Death Eaters, while
simultaneously protecting Dumbledore, reining in a potentially volatile
Draco (who, while clearly very hesitant to kill an unarmed Dumbledore
might not be so hesitant to fight an unexpectedly-turned-traitor Snape),
*and* fighting off the effects of the UV which are presumably trying to
make him drop dead. Can he succeed? There is no definitive answer,
but he's clearly fighting a *very* uphill battle, which, if he loses, will
cost
more lives than simply his own. Alternatively, he can...
2. Kill Dumbledore, who is weak and perhaps even dying, which in the
process *ensures* the saving of three lives on the Tower--Harry (by
far the most important, as Snape knows, whether he likes it or not),
Draco (who is a student, thus someone Dumbledore--and perhaps
Snape--believes must be protected at all costs), and Snape himself,
who may well be more valuable than Dumbledore, at least a dying or
permanently-weakened-by-the-horcrux-curses Dumbledore.
Hmm. What to do, what to do...?
Now, Snape might well be selfish enough to choose option 1--and I don't
even mean selfish in a typical Snape manner, but selfish in the manner
of the average person who'd rather perish and let the chips fall where
they may than kill someone they respect and love. It's so much easier
to divest oneself of such a horrible responsibility, even if one knows the
end result will almost surely be much worse. (That previously overheard
conversation in the forest may indicate this is indeed Snape's preference.)
But Dumbledore wouldn't be selfish. He doesn't fear death; he sees it as
the next great adventure. And he has lived a long and useful life, so why
wouldn't he want his death to be equally useful? It didn't pain Dumbledore
in any emotional sense to give up his life. What would have pained him far
more is the suffering he has forced on Snape. But if it was the only way to
ensure the survival of Harry, the students of Hogwarts, and of the WW in
general, then he'd do it, and comfort himself with the knowledge that even
Snape will ultimately reap the benefit, by earning the redemption he sorely
wants and needs, even if he has to suffer greatly for it in the interim.
I know some see this as cold calculation on Dumbledore's part, and in
a sense it is. But sometimes it is necessary to shut out emotion to do
what is truly right--in this case, what will eventually save potentially
hundreds or thousands of lives in the WW--because what *is* right is
often not what *seems* right, as well as not what is easy.
In this scenario Snape ultimately did not make the choice which seemed
right emotionally, and which would result in the best outcome for *him*,
but the choice that would result in the best outcome for *everyone* involved
-i.e., the most lives saved and the ultimate destruction of Voldemort. In
other words, he made the right choice by Dumbledore's standards. I don't
think you can be any more Dumbledore's Man than that ;-)
Julie
(skipping the question of whether Snape brought this all upon himself, for
the moment)
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