Wand Lore / Luna / Alchemy

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 181690

 Pippin:
> > But no matter how great his desire for vengeance, Harry is not a
> > killer. Dumbledore already knows this, specifically because Harry 
> did not even try to kill Sirius or Pettigrew, and in general because
he believes killing is much harder than innocent people think.
> 
> Magpie:
> Sometimes it's easier than innocent people think. The only reason 
> Harry hadn't killed someone by the time Dumbledore died was because 
> Snape happened to be nearby with the secret fix-cure. Harry was
using  the exact same curse on Snape.

Pippin:
Sure, and Draco's stomp might've made Harry drown in his own blood, or
driven a fragment of bone into Harry's brain and killed him. But it's
not easy to kill a person by breaking the nose unless you know how.
Killing a person with a knife, or even a sword isn't that easy either,
especially going up against a trained opponent. Let's get real--Harry
had about as much chance of beating Snape with sectum sempra as I do
of beating the world heavyweight champion in a fist fight. The race
isn't always to the swift -- but that's the way to bet.

Harry has never tried to kill anyone in a sneak attack. He's not a
cold-blooded killer. He did not methodically practice using sectum
sempra, much less avada kedavra,the way he drilled with expelliarmus
and stunning spells. He may have wanted to kill Snape in his rage,
immediately after Dumbledore's death, but as we saw, rage is to
vengeance what alcohol is to sex: it increases desire  but impedes
performance <g>. 



> Magpie:
> But this is Voldemort. Of course he would kill him just to be sure.
I  would never expect Voldemort to just stun the person and keep them 
 alive. He'd all be all about killing him just for the symbolic value.


Pippin:
Then he'd have killed his faithless followers, including Snape, as
soon as he returned to his body. Voldemort may  kill anyone in a fit
of rage, but he doesn't generally kill his henchmen as long as they
are useful to him. He doesn't give a flying fig about symbolism except
when he's playing to an audience. We might expect Voldemort to behave
like a  cliche evil overlord and kill just to establish how nasty he
is, but Dumbledore didn't know he was dealing with a fictional
character. He could only judge Voldemort based on Voldemort's own past
actions.

If Dumbledore's plan had worked, I think Snape would simply have
presented the Elder Wand to his master like the broomstick of the
Wicked Witch of the West, and Dumbledore would have been delighted to
explain, in some posthumous manner, that it was powerless because he
had willingly accepted death. No need to mention his little
arrangement with Snape at all.

Pippin