Did Snape actually AK Dumbledore?

[unlikely2]

Could Dumbledore have been an inferius?

I wrote a drabble using this hypothesis some time ago. It's completely at odds with the (more recent) theory I posted earlier today but I don't believe I've seen it anywhere else so, off the wall and off the tower, here goes . . .

In 'Half-blood Prince', Dumbledore assures Harry that he won't  die immediately

Comments

[orpheus_samhain]

I don't think Snape was bound by Draco's will (or lack of thereof) to kill. He was bound by the task Voldemort gave Draco. That means that if Draco didn't kill Dumbledore, Snape had to do this to survive.

HBP, adult, p. 41
"And, should it prove necessary... if it seems Draco will fail... [...] will you carry out the deed that the Dark Lord ordered Draco to perform?"

I hope it's clear :/

[unlikely2]

Aside from physical methods of avoidance, we don't know enough about Unbreakable Vows to know how they might or might not be subverted. There are potential ways around one although they might require a better writer than myself to make them plausible

[orpheus_samhain]

Well, it was stressed that there is no way out of it. At least if conditions of the Vow were phrased carefully. I think Narcissa covered it up nicely.

Snape had to do three things for Draco: watch over him, assist him and do it for him if he failed. Draco's trying or not doesn't matter. If Draco would sit and do nothing still Snape would have to do it, bound by the third part, because it doesn't say anything about Draco's attitude to his task.

Snape is safe only as long as it seems Draco can succeed.

:DDDDD You're right! You just told me one of those things I couldn't put my finger on. It was so easy to expel Draco, as so justified, yet DD didn't do it, endangering other students' lives. Expelling Draco would mean that he didn't have a chance to finish his task, so Snape would have to do it for him or die.

Could Harry's quick reactions have saved Snape's life?Maybe if Dumbledore wasn't the Headmaster. But I think that DD would not expel Draco even then. Remember when he told Snape to be quiet about Remus' being a werewolf

[wryfox]

Consider this though, did Snape even KNOW what the task was before making the Unbreakable Vow? Just having reread that chapter a few days ago, nowhere does it discuss what his task is specifically. Perhaps Snape was just pretending to know so they would tell him. I remember when I first read that chapter my first thought was: why is Snape talking circuitously about the task if he knows what it is? My original guess was that Draco's task was to kill Harry. Then in the chapter where Snape confronts Draco, it doesn't seem as if he knows what Draco is trying to accomplish or how. If you make an Unbreakable Vow and you don't even know what it is, is it still valid...we just don't know.

[galaxiezero]

i know, i know. i still think that something no one makes a big deal out of is something mentioned on CoS- during tom riddle's time at hogwart's, dumbledore was the transfiguration teacher. still not sure if that's somehow going to come into play.

[unlikely2]

Before JKR said that Dumbledore was dead, there were various theories about how that could have been done. One of them I rather liked (I'd have to look for it) suggested a gold breastplate (a sort of cross between the statue in the fountain and 'Back to the future'). Dumbledore did teach transfiguration. The acquisition of extra heavy underwear might explain his sudden inability to remain upright.
Dumbledore could have left the tower alive. We've already seen one faked death (with extra Dragon's blood) at the beginning of HBP.

[galaxiezero]

hee hee, "extra heavy underwear."

i should SO not be allowed to be on the computer when i've been awake for so long...

[unlikely2]

Sleep is always good.