More thoughts on the Elder Wand subplot - Owner?

[eggplant107]

No: HPFGUIDX 187414

Sorry for that last message, somehow it got sent way too soon

 "kempermentor" <iam.kemper at ...> wrote:

> I think Snape made it clear that he
> didn't /like/ Harry which is different than not caring for him.

Yes I think that's true, and in a way that is the opposite of Dumbledore, he liked Harry, loved him even, but he didn't care for him. 

Dumbledore says: "If I know him he [Harry] will have arranged matters so that when he does set out to meet his death, it will truly mean the end of Voldemort".
 
So if everything had gone according to Dumbledore's plan then both Harry and Voldemort would have died in their first encounter in the forest that night. But as Harry says, Dumbledore overestimated him; he was unable to dispose of the snake. When Harry confronted Voldemort
in the Forbidden forest both were injured, both were knocked out but Voldemort didn't die because the Snake still lived and Harry didn't die because the snake still lived. If Harry had killed the snake both would have died.

This is what Dumbledore wanted this is what he expected. When Snape responds with horror:
 
"You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment?" 

Dumbledore seems to dismiss Snape's reservations as trivial: 

"Don't be shocked, Severus. How many men and woman have you watched die?" 

Snape: You have been raising him like a pig for slaughter."

Dumbledore: But this is touching Severus, have you grown to care for the boy after all?

Dumbledore is sneering. Dumbledore is sneering at Snape because he is reluctant to passively watch a 17 year old boy get murdered, even one he didn't like. 

I'm not saying Dumbledore was happy about the prospect of Harry's death, he certainly was not! And I'm not criticizing him; Dumbledore did what had to be done in a time of war, but at least in this instance Dumbledore's emotions seem a little more human than Dumbledore's. And this is coming from a founding member of the I Hate Snape club. 

Eggplant 

PS: My negative feelings toward Snape have softened a bit after book 7 came out, but I still wouldn't want to get stuck in a elevator with the man.