Dumbledore would not perform a UV (Was: Snape is still working for Dumbledore )

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 159799

montims:
> > Ooh - I just flew off on a flight of fancy - if they HAD made the UV, 
> who would have cast the spell?  So I thought of Aberforth, and I 
> realised it could have been done after the prophecy eavesdropping 
> incident - Aberforth held on to Snape, DD finished with Sybill, they 
> all three sat down for a little chat, Snape convinced them of his good 
> intentions, bada bing bada boom, the UV was cast and Snape was forever 
> after DDM.
> 
> Tonks:
> I like the idea. This would leave Aberforth able to tell Harry about 
> Snapes loyalties. The only problem with this idea is that I don't
think that Snape switched side until AFTER he gave the informantion to
LV. So while this idea gives us someone to tell Harry the truth about
Snape, the time line is not quite right.

>
Carol responds:
It isn't just the timing that's wrong. It's the concept. Not only is
an Unbreakable Vow based on compulsion, the antithesis of Dumbledore's
philosophy of choice, it may be Dark magic as well. The person who
breaks the vow dies. Would Dumbledore do that to anyone? Would he say
that he *trusts* Severus Snape completely? I don't think so. A *bond*
based on compulsion does not generate trust, and IMO, even if Snape
offered to take a UV to show his loyalty, DD would have refused the
offer. He trusts Snape because Snape *chose* what right over what was
easy (or so DD believes), and he's not going to take that choice away.

Let's look at the imagery of the UV, which filled me with horror (and
fear for Snape) when I first read it. He's hand in hand with a Dark
witch and a Darker witch is pointing her wand at him:

"A thin tongue of brilliant flame issued from the wand and wound its
way around their hands like a red-hot wire. . . .A second tongue of
flame shot from the wand and interlinked with the first, making a
fine, glowing chain. . . . Bellatrix's astounded face glowed red in
the blaze of a third tongue of flame, which shot from the wand,
twisted with the others, and bound itself thickly about their clasped
hands, like a rope, like a fiery snake" (HBP Am. e.d. 36-37).

Flame, red-hot wire, flame, chain, glowed red, blaze, flame, bound,
rope, fiery snake.

These are hellish images of fire and bondage, along with a snake
image, with all the connotations of Slytherin and the Basilisk and
Nagini and Voldemort conveyed by that image in the HP books, with or
without further suggestions of, say, the serpent in the Garden of Eden
in the Bible or any other negative connotations that snakes may have
for the reader. And JKR ends the chapter with Snape on his knees,
bound with ropes of fire to Narcissa Malfoy.

I cannot imagine Dumbledore as either the person stating the terms of
the vow, the person to whom Snape is bound not by loyalty but by
darkly magical chains of fire, or as the *binder* from whose wand the
fiery ropes shoot out.

Whatever bond, in the metaphorical sense, exists between Snape and
Dumbledore, it is based on mutual trust, a mutual sense of purpose,
perhaps even mutual affection. Or at least, that Dumbledore's
perception, and I believe it to be the correct one. Trust cannot be
compelled or it ceases to be trust.

"It is our choices that reveal who we are." And it is, it must be,
Snape's choices that cause Dumbledore to trust him.

As McGonagall says very early on, there are some forms of magic that
Dumbledore is too noble to use. And IMO, the Unbreakable Vow, which
compels another wizard to keep his word or die, is one of them.

Narcissa may suggest it and Bellatrix perform it, but Dumbledore is
another sort of person altogether.

As for a binder, we know nothing about Aberforth, but I'm sure that
zgirnius' image of Hagrid as binder (upthread) was meant to be comic.
I can't see Hagrid performing Dark magic with that umbrella even if he
could, or DD asking him to, or Hagrid keeping it a secret if he had
done it. (I mentioned the same idea in a forgotten post, if it matters.) 

Carol, leaving out Snape's motives to focus solely on Dumbledore in
this post