Snape and Dumbledore on the Tower: A Defense of Snape

[puduhepa98 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 165673

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.)
 
Nikkalmati
 
No one we have seen killed by an AK has been lifted up into the air and  sent 
flying into space.  Either Snape killed him with an AK and levitated  DD over 
the wall and down, or SS hit DD with some other curse which levitated  him 
over the Tower.  I cannot think of a reason why ESE!Snape would trouble  to lift 
up DD's body and send it over the wall.  A DDM Snape, however,  could have 
used an AK for reasons that are still a matter of discussion.
 
When Harry found DD's body, it was lying at the foot of the Tower.  I  have 
no idea how far it would have fallen (150 feet?), but the locket had fallen  
out of his pocket and his glasses were askew.  Harry straightened  them.   Now, 
if DD was killed by the fall, as opposed to having  been floated to the 
ground, his glasses would be more than askew, it seem  to me.  Then why the blood 
trickling out of DD's mouth?  If he  did not hit the ground hard, the bleeding 
would not be from internal  injuries.  An AK does not produce bleeding.  I 
suppose a poison could  produce internal bleeding, which means DD died at the foot 
of the Tower from  poison.  If Harry ever discovers this, he will be 
devastated.  It is  bad enough that he will eventually reflect that he is responsible 
for DD's  weakened condition and DD's consequent inability to defend himself.
 
The alternative explanation is that JKR has not given these details  much 
thought and included the blood and the glasses as touching moments without  
considering their implications.  Still, I keep thinking of Harry's belief  as he 
was chasing Snape down that if he could bring Snape and DD together, he  could 
reverse the events.  Why was that thought of Harry's reported?   If DD was 
dying from the potion, certainly SS could have tried to reverse that,  but he 
could not have reversed an AK or death from a 150 foot fall.  DD had  believed 
that Snape could overcome the poison because  he repeatedly asked Harry to bring 
him Snape when they returned from  the Cave.  I would almost rather that DD 
died from the poison than that he  conspired with Snape in his own death.
 
Nikkalmati (who doesn't believe that Snape murdered DD out of self-interest  
or malice or loyalty to LV  either).   

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