Draco and Dumbledore

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 160161

> Carol, *still* not understanding what Alla et al. think DD ought to
> have done that he didn't do or how the students were in danger with
> the random murder attempts stopped, every possible protection in
> place, and the Order guarding the school on the night of the 
Horcrux hunt
>

Dungrollin:

Presumably after the Katie Bell incident, they should have detained 
Draco (by force if necessary), interrogated him, destroyed the 
vanishing cabinet in the RoR, and secreted him away somewhere along 
with Narcissa (again, forcibly if necessary), thus activating the 
vow. Snape, of course, should have magnanimously died, and it would 
have been his own stupid fault. They give out the story that DD 
killed both Draco and Snape in self-defence, after they revealed 
themselves to be undercover agents of Voldemort and attempted to 
assassinate him. 

The consequences of this are quite interesting. 

Ron would have still been affected by a love potion and then 
poisoned on his birthday. On the other hand, Harry wouldn't have had 
the chance to test Sectumsempra out on Malfoy. However, I think we 
could confidently say that he would *still* have tried it out. On 
who, though? And Snape would have been too dead to save the victim. 

Harry and Dumbledore would have left Hogwarts as they did in HBP, to 
go to the cave and find the locket Horcrux. All would have proceeded 
as it indeed did, only when they got back to school there would have 
been no DE assassination attempt. Nor, however would there be a 
Severus Snape to cure DD from the cursed potion. Even *before* 
Rosmerta stops DD and Harry in Hogsmeade, DD insists that he needs 
Snape, not Pomfrey:

"We need to get you up to the school, sir 
 Madam Pomfrey 
"
"No," said Dumbledore. "It is 
 Professor Snape whom I need 
 but I 
do not think 
 I can walk very far just yet 
"
- HBP, The Lightning-Struck Tower, p542.

DD may have died anyway, or, if Harry had thought quickly and 
Apparated him to St. Mungo's he may at least have been severely ill 
for a long while like Katie was. Additionally, the Order's most 
useful spy, in Voldemort's inner circle is unable to continue his 
duties because he's dead. The Order has by now had no foreknowledge 
of Voldemort's intentions for over six months, DD is dead/out of 
action in St. Mungo's (which has already failed to protect one of 
it's patients from murder), and Hogwarts is ripe for picking.

But at least none of the children got hurt. Apart from Ron. And 
apart from whoever it was died as a result of Harry's sectumsempra - 
McLaggan, perhaps? And let's face it, killing a fellow student is 
*quite* likely to get Harry expelled – but hey, he's off Horcrux-
hunting anyway, right?

Personally, I think Snape is a seriously useful chap to have around.

Dung