Second hand trust in Snape WAS: Would Harry forgiving Snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164212

Alla wrote:

> I will be the first one to smack Harry, if he is given strong 
> evidence in book 7 that Snape is loyal to Dumbledore and chooses to 
> disregard them. I said many times I would immensely dislike if it 
> will turn out that Dumbledore ordered Snape to kill him, but I would 
> surely want Harry to accept it as a man, and move on with his life. 
> ( Hopefully he will see such Dumbledore for he is, but for that I am 
> certainly NOT holding my breath) <snip>

Carol responds:
If Dumbledore would have died in any case, either from the poison or
the DEs, and having Snape kill him (and send his body over the
battlements) was the only way to protect Harry and Draco, get the DEs
out of Hogwarts, and allow Snape to infiltrate the DEs and somehow
undermine Voldemort, how does that make Dumbledore despicable?
Granted, he was asking Snape to split his soul, but it was Snape's
choice. Better Snape, an adult, than Draco, a
not-quite-seventeen-year-old boy whom no one seems to regard as an
adult. And if Snape's action saved not only Draco but Harry, the hope
of the wizarding world, how is that despicable?

It seems to me that not only Dumbledore, who asked to be murdered to
prevent an even worse outcome, victory for Voldemort, but Snape, who
chose to sacrifice his career, his freedom, and perhaps his soul,
chose to do what was right rather than what was easy.

Dumbledore must have spoken to Snape about this possibility, about
what might happen if they could not prevent the UV from being
activated, and about why it could be for the best for Snape to choose
to keep rather than break the UV.

If I'm right, if Dumbledore acted for the good of the WW in begging
Snape to keep his vow rather than breaking it and dying with him, I
see that as a brave and noble action. He saved Snape's life, and in
doing so, enabled Snape to save Draco and get the DEs off the tower
before they attacked Harry. If any other DE had killed Dumbledore, or
if he had dropped dead from the poison, Snape would have been forced
to reveal his loyalties or die from the vow, Fenrir Greyback would
have had Dumbledore for "afters," Draco would have been killed by
Voldemort for failing to kill DD, Harry would have come out from the
Invisibility Cloak and been killed by the DEs, and the DEs would have
run through Hogwarts, killing and destroying at will (as the broken
Gryffindor hourglass perhaps signifies).

Carol, thinking that DD's begging Snape not to kill him just to save
Snape's soul would have been almost as cowardly and despicable as
begging for his own life because he was afraid to die