On the trivial and the profound.

[puduhepa98 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 165732


> > Neri:
> > I'm referring to the third part. The third  part implies that if Draco
> > tries to kill Dumbledore and fails, and  Snape isn't present to step in
> > and do the deed instead (say,  because he's teaching or sleeping at the
> > time) then he has broken  the UV and he's dead, and there are no "to
> > the best of your  abilities" excuses in this part.
> 
> Pippin:
> But there's  nothing about instantaneous action, either. Draco
> fails with the  necklace and the poison, fails to fix the cabinet for
> months on end,  Dumbledore continues to live, yet Snape doesn't 
> fall dead on the spot.  The vow puts no time 
> limit on Snape's performance, which makes it a  poor
> contract. Narcissa needs a better lawyer <g>
>  

>Neri:
>This isn't law. It's magic, and a very dangerous one.  Draco doesn't
fail with the necklace and the poison, because he has not been  caught,
and thus he's still free to make another try. For the same reason,  as
long as Draco hasn't fixed the cabinet but still has a fair chance  to
do so, he hasn't failed yet. But if he gets killed, then he  certainly
has failed. If he's locked in Azkaban or even just expelled  from
Hogwarts he doesn't have another chance at Dumbledore's life and  so
he's failed. Voldemort isn't going to wait until Draco is 150 years
old  for him to kill Dumbledore, and the UV isn't either. No time
limits would  make the whole UV magic worthless. 

> Pippin:
> Snape, OTOH, is  a DADA specialist -- he probably knows a whole lot
> more about the  Unbreakable Vow and its operations than Narcissa
> does, and certainly  more than we do. 
> 

>Neri:
>You can be very good at DADA  and yet you won't be able to cheat the UV
if it's not cheatable. Just like  you can't cheat the Fidelius no
matter how good you are at Charms, and you  can't cheat Felix Felicis
no matter how good you are at Potions (or Slughorn  would have surely
used it much more than twice in a lifetime). The whole UV  thing would
be rather pointless if anyone good at DADA could fool it.  Bellatrix
knows something about these things too, and she's generally  very
suspicious of Snape, and yet she doesn't accuse him of slithering  out
of the UV terms. In her amazement you see that she believes this  time
Snape has committed himself totally. It never even crosses her  mind
that the UV can be  fooled.

Nikkalmati    
 This exchange put me in mind of an explanation for the fury Snape  expresses 
when Harry calls him a coward for the second time in the confrontation  at 
the end of HBP. The first time Harry wants Snape to fight him instead of  just 
defending against Harry's spells.  Snape has no problem with this  because he 
does not feel the sting of the accusation and turns it back on Harry  by 
insulting his father as a coward.  However, when Harry says kill me like  you killed 
him, you coward, Snape loses it. "Don't call me a coward!"   Maybe his 
reaction is because he has just taken a huge risk.  
 
The UV is ancient magic like Lily's protection of Harry and the Triwizard  
cup.  It is unpredictable and not controllable by the knowledge or wizards  or 
witches, as we have seen in those two cases.  You just don't mess with  it.  
When Snape took the UV, the terms were somewhat ambiguous, but neither  Snape 
nor Narcissa was in control of the interpretation of the vow.  What  constitutes 
a breach of its terms?  What if it was not "necessary" to kill  DD?  
 
If Snape chose not to AK Dumbledore, but cast some other curse and  levitated 
him to the ground, he was taking an enormous risk that he would be  killed by 
the UV - and he would not know whether he was in danger or how much  time he 
had.  He did not know that DD had drunk poison, although he may  have had time 
to see the scene at the cave in DD's mind (I don't believe any  kind of 
verbal message can be sent by Legilimancy).  He would not be sure  DD was going to 
die;  therefore, if he had just that moment risked  everything to avoid 
killing DD himself, he would certainly be enraged by being  called a coward.
 
Nikkalmati (who understands that this theory means that Snape may have  
dropped dead from the UV after he left Hogwarts and may even now be dead.   Say it 
isn't so!) 
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