On the Vow and Other Thoughts: Yet Another Snape Essay
Well, first and foremost, does any of us actually think they know what book 6 was about?!
I don’t think so.
We are left exactly as clueless about the real plot of this book, as we were about what was actually going on all through the first book. We don’t know what the real players were up to. And the real players are, as MANY have mentioned on countless occasions, NOT Harry and co., but Voldemort and Dumbledore. An arrangement which I believe will not change in the final book of the series either.
The biggest hole in most Snape-Is-Not-Evil theories I’ve seen so far is one thing: The fact that Snape made an Unbreakable Vow to kill Dumbledore. How could he possibly do that and be on the good side in the same time? Someone posted an excellent essay in this very community about why Snape made that Vow. Although I’m the first to admit how absolutely interesting Weak!Snape is, I cannot accept that theory. Mostly because Snape is not capable of mastering his emotions and behavior when his insecurities are touched, and he seems in perfect control of both in Spinner’s End. Actually it’s him who, instead of trying to calm Narcissa and send her away, says ‘It might be possible…for me to help Draco.’ Other people reasoned that he had to do that because Bella was present. I think that this doesn’t work either. It would have been just too easy to throw it off by saying that he wouldn’t do anything against the Dark Lord’s wishes blah blah blah, very similar to the cruel faced DE on the tower top who fervently stops anyone else from killing Dumbledore, insisting that these are Draco’s orders.
I had personally suggested that considering Narcissa’s state of mind at the moment (“there’s nothing I won’t do anymore”) Snape was afraid that she would go ahead and do something stupid. He didn’t need to be a Legilimens to guess that if Narcissa was so desperate as to disobey Voldy’s direct order, she would almost certainly, had her very last hope been crushed, try to kill Dumbledore (or even Voldemort, now that I think about it!) all by herself, getting killed in the process either by the Order or the DE’s (for disobeying Voldy) So this forced Snape to make the Vow, against his will.
While I still somewhat like that theory, it now seems to me that we have been missing something huge here (I mean HUGE!). The biggest problem with those theories is not a problem at all! And it shows nothing about Snape’s true colors(which I’m still not sure about) This hit me over the head in my third reading of Spinner’s End. Snape says that he thinks the Dark Lord intends him to do it, in the end. In the third chapter, we see Dumbledore, obviously guessing that he will be dead before Harry turns 17(his talk with the Dursleys is very much like a last request). I mean, think about it as Dumbledore would:
1. He knows he’ll die in a couple of months anyway, poor bloke.(I personally think, like many others, that there was a gangrene-like quality to that curse on his arm and that Snape had only been able to make the progress slower, giving Dumbledore some time to sort out his business before dying. Stopper death anyone?)
2. He knows it’s Draco who’s supposed to do that. He doesn’t want Draco to become a murderer.
3. Regardless of whether Snape has told him or not, Dumbledore is clever enough to work out that Voldemort would probably want Snape to kill him. He knows that Voldy would require something that big to believe that Snape wasn’t his stooge.
4. If he’s going to die, he wants his death be of some use. Everyone does!
We don’t know what Snape and Dumbledore were cooking all the year, but it now seems obvious to me that it certainly involved Snape killing Dumbledore! Voldy had ordered Draco to do that, which meant Snape killing him would be dispobeying orders. This could prove to be a bugger! By making the Vow, Snape had the chance to be officially forced to kill Dumbledore if Draco would fail, which the brat damn would. In other words Snape wasn’t forced to make the Vow, it was more in the lines of grabbing the opportunity. And of course he told Dumbledore! Ironically, this actually went under the category of good news! (Again, poor bloke Dumbledore)
Thinking about it, didn’t you wonder why Dumbledore left Draco alone all year? I mean, if I were Dumbledore I would have given Draco some time, then when I noticed that he looked more ashen faced everyday, or after the first desperate attempt, I would call him up to my office, convince him that he couldn’t kill me and that Voldy only meant him to get killed trying, offer protection for his mother and be over with it. Even if Dumbledore meant Draco to have the chance of killing him thus facing his own precious inability to murder, which he probably did mean, all he would have to do was to call him up to his office to talk about prefect duty, start a chat about how he’d gone old and weak and all, make a show of leaving his wand on his desk as he went to the other side of the room, preparing drinks with his back turned to Draco. He’d have needed to give Draco about 30 seconds and then he could turn around and surely there would be Draco, his wand raised, pale and gibbering, very much like the state he had on the tower-top.
He claims it was in fear of Voldemort using Legilimency. But, really, I blinked when I read that. It makes no sense whatsoever. We’re talking about protecting the boy. My idea of protection would be hiding the boy and his mom, possibly by Fidelius, and making sure Voldemort could never find them again. It certainly didn’t involve putting him in a position where Voldemort could perform legilimency.
UNLESS.
Unless Dumbledore’s planning to recruitanother spy. It’s quite possible that Snape isn’t his only source of info from the Dark side. (He doesn’t introduce the source who told him Voldemort was in Albania(CoS) and Fudge gives him credit for having had a number of useful spies back in the first war(PoA)) I guess he could be planning some sort of link between Snape and Draco. Snape would kill Dumbledore, thus going as high as possible in Voldemort’s rank, getting his hand on VERY crucial info, but what use would this be if no one would trust him enough to hear what he has to say? So, Draco would be the low-rank DE the Order could be persuaded to trust and Snape could use Draco to transfer his info to the Order. Of course, this is all too secret to be told to many.
Would Dumbledore ask a sixteen-year-old to become a spy? I believe he isn’t quite the saint that we like to believe him to be. He does put pressure on Harry. And we know for the record that he got a twenty-year-old to spy for him. Great Chess Player!Dumbledore showed himself in book 6, I believe. Draco has already made the choice to get into the game. If you can cover him properly, why not use him? Specially as he would be exactly the kind Voldemort would underestimate.
Whether this theory is right or not, it is important to notice that whatever Snape and Dumbledore were cooking between the two of them the whole year, was not completed. The original plan probably didn’t put Snape in such a complete mess as he is in right now. And it probably involved some of the Order knowing about the plan, If only a very small group. It couldn’t be told to everyone because it would be much better if it was publicly known that the Phoenix lot were after Snape’s blood. I mean, if you were Voldemort wouldn’t you count it as an insult to your intelligence if Snape killed Dumbledore and was still trusted by the Order.
I admit that there are a number of holes in my theory. BIGGEST one being the effect murder is supposed to have on the soul in Potterverse. And that’s NOT limited to AK. Dumbledore believed Nagini is a Horcrux because Voldy used her to kill a muggle. It’s murder that rips the soul and NOT the spell. So they couldn’t get around it by using poison, or throwing him off a tower. But maybe killing with the victim’s consent wouldn’t be like that? I don’t know.
I still have the feeling that I’m missing something. It all still sounds a little lame. I have a feeling that the Ring should come in here. Could Dumbledore have left a will, asking Harry to accept help from the person bearing it? Could Snape get a few scenes as a Black-clad figure with a covered face who is recognized only by his ring? *looks disdainfully at cheesiest idea ever* I guess Not.
However, if this theory turns out to be anything near the truth, I believe Snape will try to send Draco as the DE-from-the-cold to the Order, particularly to Harry.
I don’t think so.
We are left exactly as clueless about the real plot of this book, as we were about what was actually going on all through the first book. We don’t know what the real players were up to. And the real players are, as MANY have mentioned on countless occasions, NOT Harry and co., but Voldemort and Dumbledore. An arrangement which I believe will not change in the final book of the series either.
The biggest hole in most Snape-Is-Not-Evil theories I’ve seen so far is one thing: The fact that Snape made an Unbreakable Vow to kill Dumbledore. How could he possibly do that and be on the good side in the same time? Someone posted an excellent essay in this very community about why Snape made that Vow. Although I’m the first to admit how absolutely interesting Weak!Snape is, I cannot accept that theory. Mostly because Snape is not capable of mastering his emotions and behavior when his insecurities are touched, and he seems in perfect control of both in Spinner’s End. Actually it’s him who, instead of trying to calm Narcissa and send her away, says ‘It might be possible…for me to help Draco.’ Other people reasoned that he had to do that because Bella was present. I think that this doesn’t work either. It would have been just too easy to throw it off by saying that he wouldn’t do anything against the Dark Lord’s wishes blah blah blah, very similar to the cruel faced DE on the tower top who fervently stops anyone else from killing Dumbledore, insisting that these are Draco’s orders.
I had personally suggested that considering Narcissa’s state of mind at the moment (“there’s nothing I won’t do anymore”) Snape was afraid that she would go ahead and do something stupid. He didn’t need to be a Legilimens to guess that if Narcissa was so desperate as to disobey Voldy’s direct order, she would almost certainly, had her very last hope been crushed, try to kill Dumbledore (or even Voldemort, now that I think about it!) all by herself, getting killed in the process either by the Order or the DE’s (for disobeying Voldy) So this forced Snape to make the Vow, against his will.
While I still somewhat like that theory, it now seems to me that we have been missing something huge here (I mean HUGE!). The biggest problem with those theories is not a problem at all! And it shows nothing about Snape’s true colors(which I’m still not sure about) This hit me over the head in my third reading of Spinner’s End. Snape says that he thinks the Dark Lord intends him to do it, in the end. In the third chapter, we see Dumbledore, obviously guessing that he will be dead before Harry turns 17(his talk with the Dursleys is very much like a last request). I mean, think about it as Dumbledore would:
1. He knows he’ll die in a couple of months anyway, poor bloke.(I personally think, like many others, that there was a gangrene-like quality to that curse on his arm and that Snape had only been able to make the progress slower, giving Dumbledore some time to sort out his business before dying. Stopper death anyone?)
2. He knows it’s Draco who’s supposed to do that. He doesn’t want Draco to become a murderer.
3. Regardless of whether Snape has told him or not, Dumbledore is clever enough to work out that Voldemort would probably want Snape to kill him. He knows that Voldy would require something that big to believe that Snape wasn’t his stooge.
4. If he’s going to die, he wants his death be of some use. Everyone does!
We don’t know what Snape and Dumbledore were cooking all the year, but it now seems obvious to me that it certainly involved Snape killing Dumbledore! Voldy had ordered Draco to do that, which meant Snape killing him would be dispobeying orders. This could prove to be a bugger! By making the Vow, Snape had the chance to be officially forced to kill Dumbledore if Draco would fail, which the brat damn would. In other words Snape wasn’t forced to make the Vow, it was more in the lines of grabbing the opportunity. And of course he told Dumbledore! Ironically, this actually went under the category of good news! (Again, poor bloke Dumbledore)
Thinking about it, didn’t you wonder why Dumbledore left Draco alone all year? I mean, if I were Dumbledore I would have given Draco some time, then when I noticed that he looked more ashen faced everyday, or after the first desperate attempt, I would call him up to my office, convince him that he couldn’t kill me and that Voldy only meant him to get killed trying, offer protection for his mother and be over with it. Even if Dumbledore meant Draco to have the chance of killing him thus facing his own precious inability to murder, which he probably did mean, all he would have to do was to call him up to his office to talk about prefect duty, start a chat about how he’d gone old and weak and all, make a show of leaving his wand on his desk as he went to the other side of the room, preparing drinks with his back turned to Draco. He’d have needed to give Draco about 30 seconds and then he could turn around and surely there would be Draco, his wand raised, pale and gibbering, very much like the state he had on the tower-top.
He claims it was in fear of Voldemort using Legilimency. But, really, I blinked when I read that. It makes no sense whatsoever. We’re talking about protecting the boy. My idea of protection would be hiding the boy and his mom, possibly by Fidelius, and making sure Voldemort could never find them again. It certainly didn’t involve putting him in a position where Voldemort could perform legilimency.
UNLESS.
Unless Dumbledore’s planning to recruitanother spy. It’s quite possible that Snape isn’t his only source of info from the Dark side. (He doesn’t introduce the source who told him Voldemort was in Albania(CoS) and Fudge gives him credit for having had a number of useful spies back in the first war(PoA)) I guess he could be planning some sort of link between Snape and Draco. Snape would kill Dumbledore, thus going as high as possible in Voldemort’s rank, getting his hand on VERY crucial info, but what use would this be if no one would trust him enough to hear what he has to say? So, Draco would be the low-rank DE the Order could be persuaded to trust and Snape could use Draco to transfer his info to the Order. Of course, this is all too secret to be told to many.
Would Dumbledore ask a sixteen-year-old to become a spy? I believe he isn’t quite the saint that we like to believe him to be. He does put pressure on Harry. And we know for the record that he got a twenty-year-old to spy for him. Great Chess Player!Dumbledore showed himself in book 6, I believe. Draco has already made the choice to get into the game. If you can cover him properly, why not use him? Specially as he would be exactly the kind Voldemort would underestimate.
Whether this theory is right or not, it is important to notice that whatever Snape and Dumbledore were cooking between the two of them the whole year, was not completed. The original plan probably didn’t put Snape in such a complete mess as he is in right now. And it probably involved some of the Order knowing about the plan, If only a very small group. It couldn’t be told to everyone because it would be much better if it was publicly known that the Phoenix lot were after Snape’s blood. I mean, if you were Voldemort wouldn’t you count it as an insult to your intelligence if Snape killed Dumbledore and was still trusted by the Order.
I admit that there are a number of holes in my theory. BIGGEST one being the effect murder is supposed to have on the soul in Potterverse. And that’s NOT limited to AK. Dumbledore believed Nagini is a Horcrux because Voldy used her to kill a muggle. It’s murder that rips the soul and NOT the spell. So they couldn’t get around it by using poison, or throwing him off a tower. But maybe killing with the victim’s consent wouldn’t be like that? I don’t know.
I still have the feeling that I’m missing something. It all still sounds a little lame. I have a feeling that the Ring should come in here. Could Dumbledore have left a will, asking Harry to accept help from the person bearing it? Could Snape get a few scenes as a Black-clad figure with a covered face who is recognized only by his ring? *looks disdainfully at cheesiest idea ever* I guess Not.
However, if this theory turns out to be anything near the truth, I believe Snape will try to send Draco as the DE-from-the-cold to the Order, particularly to Harry.