HBP post DH look Chapters 1-2.

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 184302

> Alla:
> So I suppose I am not hundred percent sure if this conversation took 
> place when UV already happened or not, accordingly my question is did 
> he take the vow when he already knew that Dumbledore wants him to do 
> him in and accordingly he took the vow solely to protect Malfoy or 
> did he take the vow to find out the plan without being quite sure 
> what's going to happen next?
> 
> Um, thanks guys, sorry for being slow today and missing something 
> very obvious.


Montavilla47:

In "Spinner's End," Snape refers to Dumbledore's injury, which means that
this chapter takes place after Dumbledore asked Snape to kill him--and
after Snape told Dumbledore about Voldemort's plan to have Draco kill
him.

I think that he took the Vow for two reasons.  One was to try and be in 
the loop of Draco's plans (in order to prevent bad stuff like Katie Bell
getting cursed).  

The second reason, I think, was in order to protect Draco from 
Voldemort.  Because Snape vowed to "protect Draco," he would be 
magically obliged to intervene if Voldemort made any unilateral decision
that Draco had failed (say, if at Christmas vacation, Voldemort decided
to declare that time was up in Draco's mission.)  The Vow gave Snape
for intervening, and any action Voldemort took against Draco would have
to be balanced against the harm it would do to V's "valuable spy."

And Snape could always the Vow itself on Bella's goading.  It was a risk,
but a calculated risk.  I could see Snape doing it IF he really cared about
Draco (because it was going outside Dumbledore's instructions).  

It's a bit hard to square that, however, with Snape in DH, since he seems
to care not a bit about the Malfoys in that book.  Maybe he's so deep in
his role that he's sacrificed the Malfoys at that point.  Or maybe we're 
just on seeing the caring parts because we're stuck in Harry's POV for
most of the book.  But it's kind of weird.

Montavilla47