'Deathbed Confession' / Ron's H-H insecurity/Did Severus Murder/Did DD Like

[jkoney65]

No: HPFGUIDX 183189

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> Zanooda wrote in
> > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/183142>:
> > 
> > << Just out of curiosity, how do you know that Snape committed 
> murder? >>
> 
> Catlady replied: 
> > I don't recall any canon nor even JKR statement that Severus
> committed murder, but I am sure he did. I believe Voldemort required
> all his Death Eaters to commit a murder (as part of a group of
> murderers) to prove they aren't wimps, to earn their Dark Mark, to
> assure them that turning their cloaks would not get them in good 
with
> the Ministry (which would want to send them to Azkaban for murder). 
> > 
> > Voldemort being Voldemort, he probably just killed the ones who
> refused to do it and the ones who set out to do it but failed. 
> > 
> > There may have been a few serving him who were too valuable to 
risk
> loosing their services in that manner, such as spies or saboteurs 
who
> were valuable because of their position in highly secret parts of 
the
> Ministry. I'm sure he valued Severus as a potions genius, but I 
don't
> think he valued Severus enough to spare him from murdering like
> everybody else. <snip>

> Carol responds:

> But, as you say, we have no canonical evidence and no evidence from
> interviews that Snape ever killed anybody. I doubt that he'd be so
> concerned about the state of his soul after killing DD had he done 
so.
> And DD asks him how many people he's watched die, not how many 
people
> he has killed.

Jack-A-Roe:
I read the scene with Dumbledore and Snape differently. 

"If you don't mind dying," said Snape roughly, why not let Draco do 
it?"

"That boy's soul is not yet so damaged," said Dumbledore. "I would 
not have it ripped apart on my account."

"And my soul, Dumbledore? Mine?"

"You alone know whether it will harm your sould to help an old man 
avoid pain and humiliation," said Dumbledore.

then

His tone was light, but his blue eyes pierced Snape as they had 
frequently pierced Harry, as though the soul they discussed was 
visible to him. At last Snape gave a another curt nod.

I read it as if Dumbledore knows that Snape has damaged his soul and 
that helping him along will not damage it any further than it already 
has been damaged. The phrasing of "pierced" brings to mind something 
being damaged. The fact that it is used twice before the word soul 
led me to inerpret the scene that Dumbledore knew about Snapes past.

If you read the scene another way and determine that he somehow 
joined the deatheaters and rose through their ranks without 
committing murder doesn't that fact that he belongs to a terrorist 
organization that uses murder as one of its tools make him an 
accessory to the murders?