More Snapesupport

[Judy]

I very much doubt that we still need spoiler space, but in case we 
do, the following two paragraphs will suffice. 

I just finished the book last night. Yes, I realize this will put my 
fan credentials into question, but I was using the book to force 
myself to work on the book that I'm writing. When I got writing done, 
I let myself read a little bit.  How did I stop myself from reading 
ahead? I got my husband to take off the binding, divide the book into 
signatures, and hide the ones I hadn't "earned" yet. 

I really wish I could have been done earlier. There are so many great 
posts here!  I don't know if I'll ever catch up & mention all the 
ones I really liked.  Also, some of those spoiler space thingies were 
great!

Ok, warning, now MY spoilers start.  (Although I can't imagine anyone 
coming here until they finished the book -- I certainly didn't)

In some ways, I liked reading the book bit-by-bit, since it gave me 
time to generate theories, and then test them with the "new canon" in 
the next sections. (The thing I really didn't like was knowing that I 
was missing out on the discussion here!)  There were some things I 
figured out (the HBP was Snape, if not a new character; Draco's task 
was to kill Dumbledore) but other things thatI completely missed 
despite my slow reading (like the possibility of Polyjuiced!Tonks.)  

The book had so much Snape!  He even made it into the title. As a 
huge Snapefan, I was thrilled with that.  But, I was quite upset at 
Dumbledore's death, even though I was very much expecting it.  The 
portrayals of grief, especially Harry and Hagrid's, really got me. 

As a huge Snapefan, of *course* I believe that Snape was acting on 
Dumbledore's orders. I don't believe that Dumbledore was suffering 
and his death was a mercy killing. Instead, I believe that either 
Snape or Dumbledore had to die due to Snape's Unbreakable Vow, and 
Dumbledore decided to save Snape instead of himself.  I favor the 
theory that Dumbledore was reaching the end of his life anyway, 
perhaps hastened along by the injury from the ring Horcrux. I also 
favor the theory that Snape was given the DADA job because Dumbledore 
knew about the Unbreakable Vow; one way or the other, Snape would be 
gone from Hogwarts at the end of the year.  

There are lots of good arguments supporting the idea that Dumbledore 
asked Snape to kill him.  But, I've come up with one that I think 
hasn't been mentioned yet. 

In the Spinner's End chapter, Bellatrix & Narcissa get Snape to 
explain away many of his pro-Dumbledore actions. However, they don't 
know that at the end of OoP, it was Snape who notified the Order that 
Harry had been lured to the Ministry of Magic. I think Snape would 
have had a hard time explaining that away, had Bellatrix & Narcissa 
known about it.  Really, if Snape was on Voldemort's side, what 
possible reason did he have for notifying the Order that Harry was in 
danger?  Snape could have pretended to Dumbledore that he didn't know 
what Harry had meant when he gave Snape his cryptic warning 
about "Padfoot at the place where it's kept."  Snape could even had 
contacted Sirius, found that he was fine, and then let the whole 
thing drop.  Instead, he sent the Order to ruin a plan Voldemort had 
spent the whole year on. 

Remembering that Snape had sent the Order to rescue Harry in OoP, I 
was convinced that he was on Dumbledore's side.  My belief never 
wavered anytime during HBP -- although it was still very hard to see 
Snape kill Dumbledore.

One more point, although this one is minor.  When Hagrid talks about 
the argument between Snape and Dumbledore (pp. 405-406 in the US 
edition), he says, "Dumebledore told him flat out that he'd agreed 
ter do it an' that was all there was to it."  Most people probably 
took that as meaning Snape had agreed to some request of Dumbledore, 
and Dumbledore was holding him to it. But it could also mean that 
Dumbledore knew of Snape's Unbreakable Vow, and the line, "that was 
all there was to it" could quite literally mean that there was no way 
out of the Vow. 

-- Snapefan!Judy