Under the influence

[eloise_herisson]

> SSSusan:
> Eloise, this is truly freaky.  I re-read that chapter for the first 
time last night, and I had the SAME thought -- that the words sounded 
like what Snape might say if he truly felt remorse for Lily & James' 
deaths.  

Eloise:
There's evidently something in the ether. For the first time in an 
age I strolled over to the main list yesterday evening and guess what 
wa right there on the home page - a discussion of the same topic!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/137969

> Saraquel:
> 
> Soon after the list opened on HBP, I posted a theory that what we 
> saw DD talking about was his memories of Snape's repentance, 
> although I speculated the torturers were to do with the 
> repercussions of breaking his life-debt to James. 

This is in reply to another Snape-memory theory which I'll let you 
read for yourselves as it involves hypothetical back story and for 
now I'd rather stick to things of which we have at least some 
canonical evidence. (Clearly we *are* going to get more revelations, 
but...)

Anyway going back to the earlier thread she quoted, there were some 
other interesting ideas. One of these (Caro in 134743) was that the 
basin contained a potion which showed you how you would die so that 
DD was living a premonition of what was about to happen. Another 
(digger in 134203) was that he was witnessing the torture and death 
of the children in the cave. 

Before going any further, I need to 'fess up. I think I accidentally 
missed out a bit from the quote, the bit where DD says,

"Don't hurt them... it's my fault, hurt me instead... "

Which I admit would be an odd thing for Snape to say to Dumbledore.

*But*...(you knew there had to be a but, didn't you?)

I had another thought.

WBD interview:
>>Ernie: I wonder if you can let us know what form will Professor 
Snape's Boggart and Patronus take? I am very curious.

JK Rowling replies -> Well, I'm not going to tell you Ernie, but 
that's because it would give so much away.<<

Did Dumbledore test Snape by facing him with a Boggart when he 
returned to him?

If James and Lily's deaths were the biggest regret of his life and he 
knew in advance that it was likely but not certain to happen, then at 
that point, logically, the anticipation of the threat being fulfilled 
must have been one of his greatest fears. Possibly, given the fact 
that he had a life-debt to James, of which we don't know the 
potential consequences, the biggest.

In any case, it seems that we will find out Snape's worst fear and it 
will be significant.

So too, for Dumbledore (and here, I have to concede ground to Kneasy).

Leaky/Mugglenet interview:
>>ES: What would Dumbledore's boggart be?

JKR: I can't answer that either, but for theories you should read six 
again. There you go.<<

Perhaps the potion contains not Essence of Dementor, but Essence of 
Boggart, making you live through your worst fear. This could be 
(similar, but subtly different from Kneasy's views, I think) that his 
greatest fear is that he has simply got it all wrong, that his moral 
compass is disorienated and that he is directly responsible for the 
suffering that ensues.

Or, it could be that his worst fear is that his trust in Snape is 
misplaced (and thus, similar to Caro's suggestion above, he sees the 
possible consequences).

Actually, my money *is* on the latter being DD's worst fear though 
whether we are seeing this here, I'm not so sure. 

~Eloise