[HPforGrownups] Snape, a Deatheater.

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 163529

> Sherry now:
I don't know if I think he supports
> Voldemort or was just being a coward and saving his own skin, in true
> Slytherin style.
> After all, Phineas Nigelus said that a Slytherin would save his own skin
> first.

Magpie:
So do you believe he was somehow saving his skin when he took the UV? 
Because to me taking a UV and always choosing to save your own neck are 
mutually exclusive. It seems to me that whenever you start to think about 
Snape making the decision to kill Dumbledore you've got to go all the way 
back to Spinner's End, because that's when it becomes inevitable if Snape is 
going to live.

I honestly don't see anywhere near the amount of pressure on Snape in 
Spinner's End to think he was forced into the Vow. He seems to take that of 
his own free will--and I should mention I've always thought that he knew 
exactly what task he was vowing to complete as well. It seems impossible to 
me that he's bluffing throughout the scene (it also seems to make the UV 
into a pretty much a comedy).

So I can never see Snape saving his own skin by killing Dumbledore in terms 
of the UV only because he's the one who placed the UV on himself, if that 
makes sense. There has to be some further explanation, whichever flavor of 
Snape you prefer. Because any way you look at it, the UV is a suicidal 
gamble.

-m