Dumbledore and Polyjuice

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 160328

"Edis" wrote:
<snip>
> Now my speculation. Dumbledore has been spying on Voldemort assuming 
> Sapes form, using Polyjuice. He is searching for Horcruxes. In this 
> Polyjuice speculation  Cissy and Bella unexpectedly confront 
> Dumbledore/Snape at Spinners End. Dum/Snape finds it necessary to go 
> through the unbreakable vow procedure to carry forwards his overall 
> mission. 
> 
> Maybe Bella has a Horcrux in her posession -a  ring perhaps?
> 
> Later we find Dumbledore with a fire-ravaged hand - and it is NOT 
> specified whether this is his right or his left hand as far as I can 
> see in any Canonical Text. Text-Experts - can anyone check out the 
> ravaged hand references in HBP?
> 
> What would be the effect of Dumbledore re-assuming his own form with 
> an oath like the UV impacting on it even though the oath was taken in 
> Snape-Form? Maybe combatting the immediate influence of the UV caused 
> his hand to be ravaged by magical Fire? 
> 
> OK all speculation - but the circumstances of the Ravaged Hand MUST 
> form part of the core Text in Book 8 or all the hand references in HBP 
> are padding.
> 
> Edis
>
Carol responds:
Snape refers to Dumbledore's injury in the "Spinner's End" chapter,
noting that DD has sustained a serious injury since the battle at the
MoM. (Like DD with Slughorn and later on the tower, he lets his
listeners think that the cause is slowed reflexes--no hint that it was
caused by a Horcrux curse, much less that Snape took "timely action"
to keep it from killing Dumbledore.)

DD does tell Harry that his injury is caused by the terrible curse
placed on the ring Horcrux and that Snape saved him, but he neglects
to tell the rest of the "thrilling tale."

As for Snape's vow, the UV has no visible effects (no injury to his
hand or to Narcissa's, which was also bound by ropes of fire), but
it's possible that invisible ropes of fire burn Snape when the vow is
in danger of being activated or when Draco is in danger. (We don't
know how the UV works, but surely it would give him warning that it
needed to be fulfilled or he would die?)

Also, Snape tells Draco that he made the Unbreakable Vow with Draco's
mother to protect Draco. I doubt he'd mention a UV that Dumbledore had
made in his name and form, or that DD would have tied Snape or himself
to such a bargain.

On a sidenote, the UV is part of Snape's tragedy and for DD to have
made it in Snape's name would take away from Snape as a character,
especially if the UV turns out to be his tragic flaw. IMO, it's tied
in with the curse on the DADA position. Here's a link to that theory
if you're interested: 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/137961?threaded=1&l=1

Snape as a character is also diminished if Dumbledore, whom we know to
be searching for Horcruxes and related information in his absences
from Hogwarts, is also doing the job of double agent and "superb
Occlumens" Severus Snape, who has been (in the view of DDM!Snapers)
risking his life since the end of GoF to find out "what Voldemort is
telling his Death Eaters," to use Snape's own words in OoP *"Yes,
Potter, that is my job").

Re Bellatrix: I think she hid the original locket Horcrux with
Kreacher's help and cousin Regulus somehow found out about it, using
Kreacher to help him steal (but not destroy) the locket, the same
unopenable locket that we saw in OoP.

Carol, who has no doubt that the Snape we see in "Spinner's End" is
the real Snape but still wonders how much of what he told Bellatrix in
that chapter is half-truth with a pro-Voldie spin rather than the full
and honest truth (which IMO would get him killed)