Another take on what happened

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "eloise_herisson" <eloiseherisson at a...> wrote:
Space,
Pressure
0 lb/sq.in.
Earth
Pressure
15 lb/sq.in
Why
Dont 
They
Even
Out 
At 7.5 lb/sq.in?

> 
> OK. Posit for just a teeny moment that our Severus *is* ESE. (Don't 
> laugh, you Snape revilers!) Now, what's given me pause for thought is 
> that there have been times when Snape could have let harm come to 
> Harry but he's deliberately intervened. Why should he do that? Why 
> not let him fall off his broomstick? Why not let him go wandering 
> round Hogsemeade when (apparently) a murderous Sirius is looking for 
> him?
> 
> This *does* make some sense if we assume that Snape is a real 
> Slytherin, whose concern is only for himself. Assume (as Sirius said 
> of Pettigrew) he just aligns himself with the biggest bully in the 
> playground and that, as he tells Bella, he *did* believe Voldemort 
> dead, or at least out of action for the forseeable future, then what 
> was the harm in aligning himself with Dumbledore, even to the extent 
> of protecting Dumbledore's favourite from harm?
>

Courage Camille!
This cannot be!
Recall that when Snape joined DD, Voldy was winning. More or less
hands down. If it hadn't been for GH Voldy would have won. Aurors
were being killed at Voldy's whim, the populace panicking. The WW
would have caved in. Oh, DD and a handful of others may have carried
on fighting, but they'd have been largely irrelevant in the larger scheme
of things. 

Why would Snape join the losing side, or even pretend to?

 
> 
> So by the time we get to the Lightning Struck Tower, we have a 
> Dumbledore prepared, willing, wanting even, to be killed and a Snape 
> who has taken an Unbreakable Vow to do the deed if Draco fails. 
> Dumbledore manipulates the situation as we see: he makes sure Snape 
> is summoned; he gives Draco time to back down; oh so politely (as we 
> see him speak to the Dursleys) he commands Snape to do what he must 
> do if he does not want to die himself. 
> 
> And in that moment, Snape knows. It's the fulfilment of the curse on 
> his particular year as DADA teacher - he must do the deed that 
> somehow sets into motion an ancient magic which ensures that 
> Dumbledore, though dead, will never truly leave those who need him. 
> He's been tricked, he's been manipulated into doing what Dumbledore 
> wants. Dumbledore has won and he hates him for it.
> 

I have a somewhat different take on this.
DD knows Draino is after him.
Who told him?
Snape.
DD also knows that he's playing with fire, messing around with Voldy
Horseclucks. He got his fingers burned once already - so badly it
doesn't seem curable.
Now he's sloshed down a few gallons of another Voldy nasty. It's so
bad than even while drinking it he asks *Harry* to kill him. It's bad.
Any drinker is probably destined to end up as a super-zombie in the
pond as minimum. 

He gets back to the castle calling for Snape. Why? Because this was 
foreseen, a possible ouutcome of messing with Dark Magic. And Snape
has been persuaded, coerced into promising to administer the coup de 
grace to prevent DD having a 'fate worse than death'. Familiar phrase?
Fulfilling the Unbreakable Curse is merely serendipitous. The great danger 
is if DD *doesn't* die but perhaps ends in thrall to Voldy.

It's a terrible burden to place on a friend, yet Snape does it. He fulfills DD's
wishes. No  wonder he goes ballistic when Harry  calls him a coward. 

Kneasy