Unbreakable Vows

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 165595

Betsy Hp:
> You're forgetting the very important word "kept", I think. If Snape 
is artifically extending Dumbledore's life, through a spell or a 
potion or a combination of both, he would in effect "kill" Dumbledore 
by removing that support. Or, if the support is no longer viable 
(i.e. the strength of the curse finally overcomes the barrier set up 
by the spell/potion) and Dumbledore dies, the Vow is null and voided, 
because there is Dumbledore is not alive to kill.

Ceridwen:
Could some ingredient in the potion acted as a caustic agent on 
whatever spell or potion Snape used to prevent the spread of 
Dumbledore's curse injury?  That is, if Snape wasn't able to actually 
*cure* the damage, but instead, contain the damaging magic, in the 
hand which was already damaged beyond repair?  I've been thinking 
about this, and keep coming back to a couple of different 
possibilities.

One, which would come under what I just suggested, is that the potion 
re-activated the curse from the ring because (in this idea) 
Voldemort's curses are sympathetic to each other.  If they "detect" 
(not consciously, of course, but are influenced in some way by) the 
presence of another Voldemort curse, they may be designed to work in 
concert with one another.

Another idea, which I've seen mentioned by other posters, is that the 
potion was part of a mixture to create Inferi.  Alone, it would kill 
the drinker, but it also created a monumental thirst.  The water, on 
the skin or ingested (I like the skin contact theory that someone 
mentioned earlier, was that zgirnius?) would act as a catalyst for 
the potion and the two together would create an Inferus.  And as the 
blended potion begins to work, the new "recruit" is pulled under the 
water by the other Inferi and so joins them.

The reason I wondered about the last one, that of the potion or 
potion and water combination creating an Inferus, is because of the 
Inferus that leaped out of the water at Harry's "Accio".  That was an 
eye-catching event, and I'm wondering if it was put in just for 
atmosphere and foreshadowing of what's in the lake, or if it had some 
other significance.

Ceridwen.