Why DD did not ask Snape to kill him. (extremely long)

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 166123

Dana:

> 'I am pleased to say, however, that Dumbledore is 
> growing old. The duel with the Dark Lord shook him. 
> He since sustained a serious injury because his 
> reactions are slower then they once were.'

> This is information that you never ever tell to 
> your enemy because it puts holes in your defence 
> system. And if he is DDM then Bella is the enemy 
> and although she was not the one who told LV, as 
> the order for Draco already stood at that time, I 
> am pretty sure LV knows this information as well.

> Although we have no canon that Snape told LV, him 
> telling Bella indicates (to me) he did because it 
> would be information LV could use.

[snip]

> Snape keeps telling Bella and Narcissa even he can't 
> change the Dark Lord's mind which means that whatever 
> LV is planning to do next after DD is gone,

houyhnhnm:

What information is Snape sharing with the enemy?  
It seems more like disinformation to me.  There is 
no evidence in HBP that, before drinking the cave 
potion, Dumbledore's reactions are slowed or that 
his magical powers are in any way diminished.  His 
blackened hand is already, or will soon become, 
common knowledge.  It must be accounted for in a 
way that will not lead to suspicions of what DD 
is actually up to (hunting for horcruxes) and if 
it is possible to make the Dark side underestimate 
DD by giving a false report of his weakness, so much 
the better.  Snape's behavior in this instance accords 
exactly with what a loyal spy would do, it seems to me. 

Just about everybody has, at some time or other, 
wanted to be a fly on the wall or own an invisibility 
cloak or a pair of extendable ears, or have a magic 
potion that allows us to change into someone else, in 
order to find out what "they" are really saying behind our backs.

Added to that universal human trait is the curiosity 
that built up from the time Snape walked out of the 
hospital wing in GoF with a pale face and glittering eyes.

All through OotP we wondered what Snape was doing 
for the Order, what he told Voldemort when he returned 
to him, what really goes on when DEs get together. 
And then, in the second chapter of Half Blood Prince, 
at last the chance comes.  Oh, boy!  Sure enough, we 
see a markedly different Snape.  We see not the pompous, 
irrascible, slightly ridiculous overgrown bat of Hogwarts, 
but Snape in his own house playing the suave host.  

This is the real deal.  We're finally going to learn 
the truth about Snape and his relationship with the 
Dark Lord.  But is it? Is "Spinner's End" truly The 
Big Reveal, or is it just a large succulent  bait 
that readers have been primed to pounce on? 

There are a few facts that can be deduced from 
"Spinner's End", I believe.  One is the front that 
Bellatrix puts on about being one of Voldemort's 
chosen confidants.  Snape pretty well demolishes 
that pose.  He doesn't just trick her into admitting 
that the outcome of the battle at the MoM has resulted 
in her falling out of favor.  I have been thinking 
more of the long list of answers Snape gives Bellatrix 
to "save tedious interruptions".  I am starting to see 
that as another technique on Snape's part for extracting information.

"He shares everything with me, " claims Bellatrix.  
Snape asks, "Does he /still/, after the fiasco at 
the Ministry?"  I ask did he *ever* share everything 
with Bella, at least since she escaped from Azkaban?

As Snape gives his long list of answers to Bella's 
questions, does she stop him at any time to say "Yes, 
I've heard all that, but ..."  Do we get a single 
hint that she has heard any of it before?  Why not?  
Bellatrix broke out of Azkaban in January.  The 
battle at the MoM took place six months later.  
Apparently, in all that time before she fell out 
of favor, Voldemort never told her anything of 
Snape's story, nor did she dare to ask.

Another piece of information that we get in 
"Spinner's End" is the way *Snape* presents himself 
to the DEs, as Voldemort's closest, most trusted, 
etc., etc.  But since there is no independent 
evidence in canon to verify Snape's account of 
himself to Bella and Narcissa, there is no way 
to know that his boasts are not as empty as Bella's 
or Wormtail's or those of any other DE.  We do 
know how much of the truth he leaves out when he 
is talking to the two sisters:  saving Harry's 
life, alerting the Order to the DEs presence at 
the Ministry, saving Dumbldore from the ring curse.  
A lot more that sounds like hooey:  his happiness 
in his soft life at Hogwarts, the "sixteen years" 
of information, his evaluation of Harry as a mediocre wizard.

So Snape claims he can't change the Dark Lord's mind.  
This is information?  *I* could say that. Knowing 
Voldemort, it's a pretty safe bet.  He's the Decider.