X-post: *When* did Dumbledore die?

[eloise_herisson]

Pippin:
> Give it fifteen minutes at least, maybe even a half an hour.
> 
> After all that he reaches Dumbledore's body
> There's a trickle of blood from the mouth. We've argued
> a lot over what could have caused it and that's JKR's
> genius. Because what we've all missed is this:
> 
> It was fresh enough to wipe away. 


Perhaps he's on Warfarin?
Or perhaps the potion had anti-coagulant properties?

IIRC, there's a Peter Wimsey mystery (can't remember the title off-
hand) in which Sayers throws in an enormous red herring regarding 
bleeding and it turns out the victim was a haemophiliac. Though I 
doubt Dumbledore was as he was ready enough to use his own blood in 
the cave.

My gut feeling has always been that this trickle of blood is just set-
dressing and has no real significance. JKR manages to lose whole 
years in her character time lines; I think she could lose 15 minutes 
easily enough. 

Your theory undoubtedly makes sense, but I don't want JKR to provide 
that kind of get-out for Snape. Obviously I hope there will be one, 
but one that involves mitigation for his actually having killed 
Dumbledore, rather than one that makes me feel that I've been cheated.

~Eloise