Was Snape asleep? (was Re: What Came First: Task or Cabinet?...

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 157814

Sydney:

> > -- D-Day.  Dumbledore wanders down to Snape's office, where Snape is
> > still saying, "if you think I'm going to kill you, you're crazy.  I'm
> > going to collar that Malfoy brat right now, and then zzzzzzzzzzzzz..."
> > Dumbledore puts a mild sleeping spell on him, breakable by anyone
> > entering the room, so he can have him when he needs him.


colebiancardi: 

 I would think that putting a spell on Snape would
> defeat the whole purpose of Dumbledore's statement of "I trust Severus
> Snape completely". 


Sydney:

I guess I'd say, Dumbledore trusts Severus completely, except on the
agonizingly painful choice of having to kill Dumbledore.  

That Dumbledore didn't think Snape would do it, to me is clear in his
"pleading" tone on the tower.  I mean, you don't *plead* with someone
if you're confident what course of action they'll take.  I trust my
best friend completely but if they had to kill me for some reason (I
don't know, if the Fate of Mankind depended on it), that's the one
point at which I'd feel I'd have to plead with them, because, I mean,
I hope she really wouldn't want to do it.

If Dumbledore was *sure* of what Snape was going to do, he wouldn't be
saying "Severus..." the moment Snape shows up, in the pleading tone
that Harry found so very shocking.  He follows it up with "Severus...
please..." just to drive the point home.  I'd say, from the pleading
tone, that Dumbledore had excellent reason to believe that Snape was
going to commit Suicide-by-Vow but hoped that he would carry through
with the plan.

Either with Evil!Snape or Good!Snape, you run into a contradiction
between the 'complete trust' and the pleading.  I haven't heard a
convicing explanation from the Evil!Snapers on this, but as a
Good!Snaper it makes sense to me that Dumbledore is having to plead
with Snape to follow through with their agreement and kill him.


Colebiancardi:

>I also think much more highly of Snape & Dumbledore's
> relationship and their ability to CHOOSE - Dumbledore, as far as we
> have seen in the books, has never forced anyone thru magic to do his
> bidding.

Sydney:

Weeeeell, Dumbledore might have cheated a little... Snape did still
have a choice in the end, after all!  And I can see Dumbledore being
protective of Snape if he really was suicidal-- and critical to the
plan.  

I'm not completely married to the sleeping spell idea (I mean, it *is*
sort of funny, and would be even funnier if Dumbledore snuck up behind
him with a baseball bat), but it does strike me as very strange that
Dumbledore would say go and *wake* Severus on a night like that.

-- Sydney