DD death

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152749

Ffred wrote:
> Not sure if this idea has ever been floated, but what if Dumbledore
chose to be killed in order to save Draco's life?
> 
> It was clear that Draco wasn't going to do the deed, and we can
surmise that the DEs would in turn have killed him if he hadn't
(perhaps they had orders to do so as a further way to punish Lucius,
or just because that's what happens to DEs who disobey).
> 
> Dumbledore knew this. He was a person who would willingly have died
to save the life of one of his students, and did so.

Carol responds:
I was under the impression that we had discussed this possibility and
that it's part of the DDM!Snape hypothesis. At any rate, I certainly
agree with you that the DEs were under orders to kill Draco if he
failed, hence Narcissa's terror and despair for her son until Snape
takes the UV. (The alternative would be to kidnap or stun Draco and
take him back with them.) I'm pretty sure that snape was the only
person who could have gotten Draco off the tower alive and that both
DD and Snape knew that. I think that Snape took the UV in the first
place intending to protect Draco at all costs, either under DD's
orders or of his own volition or both. The unanticipated final
provision complicated matters, of course, but I think that both Snape
and DD were willing to die for Draco. (I'm assuming, of course, a
DDM!Snape who informed DD first of Draco's assignment to kill DD and
then of all three provisions of the UV--DD claims to know more about
the matter than Harry does, and I believe him.)

I think, however, that Draco's life was not the only one at stake at
that point. DD had frozen Harry so that he couldn't move while DD was
alive, but the moment DD died, the spell would end. And DD was going
to die no matter what; the DEs weren't going to go back to LV with the
job undone. And Snape, IMO, knew from the second broom that Harry was
there in his Invisibility Cloak, and would rush out fighting the
moment DD died. The only way to save both Draco and Harry was for
Snape to kill DD himself, sending him over the wall rather than
leaving his body to be savaged by Greyback. Only if all the DEs
followed Snape down the stairs could Harry be kept from trying to
fight them singlehandedly.

I think that somehow DD and Snape exchanged a moment of understanding,
a glance that may or may not have involved willed Legilimency, in
which DD conveyed to Snape that he must keep the UV, he must kill DD
himself, he must get both boys off the tower and keep the DEs from
killing them.

So, yes, absolutely, DD died to save Draco--and Harry, and Hogwarts.
He would have died in any case, but only by having Snape--no,
Severus--kill him would his death be a meaningful sacrifice that did
not carry three lives with it. It was important that Draco not become
either a murderer or a victim, much more important that Harry be
saved, and essential that Snape not die from breaking his vow because
only he could save both Draco and Harry and get the DEs off the
Hogwarts grounds before they took other innocent lives.

Carol, just summarizing the hypothesis without providing canon support
because it has been discussed before