I HAD A DREAM OR HOW I REALIZED THAT I MAY HAVE BEEN WRONG./ PART 2 sort of

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 167062

> Pippin:
> <snip>
> What Dumbledore does emphasize, though, is that if Draco were
> a killer he would have acted immediately, as soon as he saw that 
> Dumbledore was defenseless. That makes it very strange that
> SupposedKiller!Snape did not do so. He took in the situation, was told 
> that the boy doesn't seem able, he pushed Malfoy out of the way --
> and *then*, it seems,  he hesitated, long enough to gaze at 
> Dumbledore, long enough for Harry to register with shock that 
> Dumbledore was pleading. 
> 

Neri:
I never got the impression Snape *hesitated*. I fact it seems to me
that JKR precisely contrasts his behavior with that of Draco. Snape
takes exactly half a page from bursting in to doing the deed. Unlike
the talkative Draco he says nothing at all to Dumbledore or to anybody
else except "Avada Kedavra!" Before that he merely "gazes for a
moment" with hatred at the pleading Dumbledore, exactly the dramatic
pause that would be appropriate before the most fateful murder of the
series, you know. Just enough time for the reader to say "Nahhh, he
wouldn't..." and then Bang! In comparison with Draco's indecisiveness
it strikes me as a very "if you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk" kind
of moment. 


> Pippin:
> Hitherto, I've been open to the idea that Dumbledore might
> have ordered Snape to kill him, though I never liked it and I didn't
> think it fit with the evidence that shows Dumbledore survived his
> fall. But now I've got to rule it out. There may have been a ruse on
the 
> tower, but I don't think there can have been a killing. Harry wasn't
> prepared for it, and that to me means that Dumbledore never
> envisioned a scenario where a loyal Snape would have to kill him.
> 

Neri:
I agree. If Snape is to be DDM then there wasn't a murder on the tower
and Dumbledore had never asked Snape to kill him. Not that I think
Snape is DDM, but *if* he is, then complete and absolute innocence is
the only solution that would be dramatic enough after the tower. I
think Rushdie has also realized this, which was why he was so sure
that Dumbledore couldn't be dead. The problem is that Dumbledore *is*
dead, and a botched ruse would most certainly not be dramatic enough.

What I'm surprised at, Pippin, is that you haven't yet blamed
Dumbledore's murder on ESE!Lupin (unless you have and I've missed it,
in this case my apologies). If we assume there wasn't a murder on the
tower then Lupin doesn't have a clear alibi. He could have run up the
tower after clearing the remaining DEs in the corridor, see the living
Dumbledore lying below and AK him from the tower while Snape and Harry
were trading insults near the gate. This scenario still leaves a few
big holes, and of course I don't think Lupin is ESE, but it's still
easier for me to buy than Dumbledore asking Snape to kill him, or
Dumbledore faking his own death and botching it.  


Neri