Snape's Remorse

[pippin_999]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "nkafkafi" <nkafkafi at y...>
wrote:
> > Pippin:
> > <huge snip>
> > 
> > But the "not a health drink" green goo of death catches up with
DD and
> > kills him as he falls. 
> > 
> 
> Neri:
> I'm not a law buff and I don't even watch law movies and TV series,
> but I wondered about one thing here. How are we (or any of the
> characters) to ever find out if Dumbledore was indeed killed by the
> green goo during the fall, or by the fall itself? If Dumbledore and
> Snape were faking it but Dumbledore was killed by the fall, I think
> the technical term would be manslaughter? The juries might acquit
> Snape on the technicality, although the chance of Dumbledore dying
> exactly during the three seconds of his way down (after already
> surviving a fight with a horde of inferi, a swim, an apparation, a
> broom flight and a pretty long talk) seems so small that I suspect
> most judges wouldn't consider it "reasonable doubt". 

Pippin:
"Judge" Hall,   a real life lawyer, instructed the Accio jury that if
they believed that Dumbledore had died as a result of the Avada
Kedavra curse, either directly or by being blasted off the tower,
they must vote to convict. If they believed that there was a
reasonable chance that he had died of poisoning, then they must 
vote to acquit.  The judge said if you thought it was  80/20 
AK/poisoning, that was enough for reasonable doubt. Snape got 
off.


Neri:
> But mostly I just can't see the line on Dumbledore's gravestone 
"died while botching his faked assassination". It just, you know, not 
the way for The Wizard With The Silver Beard to go. "Betrayed by an 
ally he trusted", now that somehow seems much more appropriate. 
But perhaps Jo was subverting the genre again?

Pippin:
Of course he was betrayed by an ally he trusted! The ally who was 
running Draco, the one who arranged for the party of Death Eaters to 
assemble at Borgin and Burkes, the one whom he had been warned 
time and again might betray him, the one who had twice broken faith 
in the past and was awarded an unprecedented and, I am sorry to say, 
undeserved *third* chance, the one for whom Dumbledore, out of a 
combination of personal sympathy and political expedience, recklessly 
did what was easy rather than what was right. 

If the Death Eaters had not entered the school and forced Draco to 
attempt to fulfill his vow, then Snape might have had a chance to
cure Dumbledore of the potion. But Dumbledore regarded Snape's
mission as more important than his own life. Why do you think 
Dumbledore used brooms to enter Hogwarts rather than summoning
Fawkes to transport him? Because he needed Snape, and Fawkes 
would have confirmed Snape's loyalty --  Fawkes squawks  when Harry 
disparages Snape, and sings out in approval  when Harry expresses 
loyalty to Dumbledore. 

I believe that Fawkes will eventually prove to Harry that Snape is
loyal. Once he realizes that, he will be able to figure everything
else out.

Pippin