[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape and Dumbledore on the Tower/ Blood on DD face

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 165346

From: houyhnhnm102 <celizwh at intergate.com>
>If the factoid "dead bodies can't bleed" is a staple 
>of detective fiction, I would expect Rowling to be 
>familiar with that.  I'm inclined to see the blood 
>on DD's face as one more clue that events on the 
>tower were not as they appeared.

Bart:
It is not. It is more how HARD they bleed (at least in detective fiction). 

In larger bookstores, in the writing section, there are several series of books designed as sourcebooks for writers; I own several of them, and have read others. According to my memory of what I have read, recently dead bodies DO bleed; it is the RATE of bleeding that shows the difference (note one of the many strangenesses of the OJ Simpson murder case; the lack of blook on OJ's body and clothing). 

Another case where postmortem bleeding was important was the killing (accidental or otherwise) of Mary Jo Kopechne in Senator Ted Kennedy's car. Although several people testified to the presence of blood in several odd places which would contradict Senator Kennedy's story, inspection of evidence that would confirm or deny this was blocked by Massachussetts courts. 

Let's see if we can give a list of the key questions about Dumbledore's death:

1) Is he really dead?
2) Is he completely dead or just mostly dead?
3) Was he dead BEFORE the AK spell was cast?
4) Was the proximate cause of death the AK spell?
5) Was it a real AK spell, or a fake covering up the real spell?
6) How did he get levitated over the roof?
7) Was he actively and irretrievably dying before the AK spell was cast?
8) Whose orders was Snape following?
9) What was the effect of the poison he had taken (it certainly was poison, whehter or not it was DEADLY poison)?
10) Why was there blood on Dubmbledore's face?

Can anybody think of more?

Bart