Snape and Dumbledore on the Tower: A Defense of Snape

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 165319


> Vexingconfection:
> I would love to see Snape innocent-I just  don't think it's gonna 
happen-but 
> I do think that Snape could have pointed his  wand elsewhere. Why 
would Harry 
> have been released from Dumbledores  spell at that exact moment 
though?

zgirnius:
Ah, but who says he was?

> HBP:
> A jet of green light shot from the end of Snape's wand and hit 
> Dumbledore squarely in the chest. Harry's scream of horror never 
> left him; silent and unmoving, he was forced to watch as Dumbledore
> was blasted into the air.

zgirnius:
If that spell was an AK, Dumbledore was dead the instant that green 
jet hit him. SO why was Harry "forced" to watch the final, dramatic 
movements of Dumbledore's dead body? Surely he could have reflexively 
closed his eyes, at least.

Harry does not actually nove until the Death Eaters leave the Tower a 
few seconds later. He attributes the delay to shock. Fair enough - 
but if he was that shocked, can we really trust that he is able to 
distinguish still being frozen by the spell, and being frozen with 
shock?

The way the scene is written leaves the door open for an 
interpretation that Dumbledore did not die instantly (and thus, 
whatever it was Snape did was not a true and successful Killing 
Curse.)