Harry Potter Theories, part deux
June 24th, 2007
Okay, so we’ve declared Snape a hero…so how in the dickens does Clan Murphy explain the ending of Book 6 and Snape’s apparent murder of Dumbledore?
Again, potential SPOILER ALERTS. We will be mentioning several incidents occuring in books 1 - 6, and if we happen to prophecy correctly about events in Book 7…so it goes.
So here goes.
First, let us remember from Book 5 that Severus Snape is an expert in Occlumancy. He knows how to close his mind to the magical probings of others. Obversely, he is also an expert Legilimens—that is, he is skilled in reading other people’s minds. It is through these lessons that we discover (most importantly to the themes of these books) that Snape and Harry have a lot in common: both know at close range what it is to be unloved, abused, misjudged. This will be critical in their ultimate reconciliation.
No question, Snape would have to be one of the greatest wizards–and we believe he is!–in both mind-control techniques to succeed in fooling Voldemort for so long. He was certainly so good that Dumbledore chose him to teach Harry these skills, even over himself, though Dumbledore was (typically) overly optimistic in thinking Harry and Snape could overcome their natural antipathies to one another.
The importance of mental intention when working magic is highlighted, in Book 5, during the final confrontation between Dumbledore’s Army and assorted Death Eaters in the Ministry of Magic. In that scene, Harry attempts to fight Bellatrix Lestrange by casting an “unforgiveable” curse on her, the Cruciatus curse. He fails, and Bellatrix taunts him with the information that when it comes to Unforgiveable Curses, you have to really mean it.
Then an interesting little development in this sort of “mind” magic is pursued, though not to its logical conclusion, in book 6: from this book it appears that a wizard can actually cast a spell with mere thinking, without actually saying the words aloud. In other words, a wizard could, say, cast an unforgiveable curse without saying the words, if he had sufficient mental control. (And again, the purported expert in this sort of magic is Prof. Snape, who has finally become the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.)
Well, Clan Murphy imagines this being taken a step further in the climax of book 6: No question Snape overtly performs the Avada Kedavra killing curse on Dumbledore in the Tower…but what if he was thinking some other spell? Such as a spell to make it look as if he had killed Dumbledore, when he had really sent Dumbledore gently through the air to land (gently) on the earth beneath the Tower? Remember, Rowling describes the dead Dumbledore in the most peaceful, undisturbed terms: he doesn’t look like a man who has been blasted out of a high Tower, and only his glasses are slightly askew.
We know that Dumbledore and Snape had quarreled about something earlier in Book 6. “You take too much for granted,” Hagrid overhead Snape saying. Dumbledore would have known (perhaps instigated) Snapes’ taking of the Unbreakable Vow, and ordered Snape to attempt the “say-one-thing-and-think-another” curse as a means of fulfilling it, should push come to shove and Snape be put in the position of having to either fultill his promise to kill Dumbledore (as a means to save Draco) or else die in breaking the curse. Snape, however, would have probably questioned his own ability to pull off so difficult a spell—hence his demurral. But Dumbledore would have insisted Snape obey him in this event, much as he forced a promise of obedience from Harry before taking him to look for the Horcrux, and Snape agreed, however reluctantly.
Clan Murphy believes that Dumbledore, in the climax of Book 6, knew full well he was dying—hence his insistence that Snape perform the killing curse, at least overtly. “That was no health drink” he tells Harry on their way back to Hogwarts, after having imbibed the poisonous potion guarding the alleged Horcrux in the cave. Every description and detail in these scenes would suggest that Dumbledore was dying, knew he was dying, and was acting accordingly. Snape obeys him, and the result is that a very weakened Dumbledore does die, though not of Snape’s curse.
The upshot, which must have consoled the dying Dumbledore: Everyone, on both sides, believes Snape killed Dumbledore. He is now the perfect Double Agent…if he can avoid getting himself killed by a furious and vengeful Harry Potter.
What courage! And remember, the thing that infuriated Snape the most, at the end of book 6, was when Harry accused him of cowardice.
Not!
Kelly Hatzenbihler on 
One Response to “Harry Potter Theories, part deux”
Yes, Snape is the lonely, misunderstood hero! Another point about the Dumbledore-death-scene is that his last words (I believe it’s “Severus, please….”) are a clear indication that Dumbledore is pleading with Snape to GO THROUGH with the plan (ie, of ostensibly killing D). Dumbledore is NOT pleading for his own life. Dumbledore, who has never been afraid of death, and who makes such a point of the importance of not being afraid of death (as is Voldemort, hence the Horcruxes), would NOT plead for his life. If loyalty to Dumbledore is, in JKR’s world, synonymous w/ goodness, here is the supreme act: to even obey him when it means dividing oneself from everyone else, and apparently killing the ONE person–yes, perhaps besides Lily P–that actually believed in him and understood him.
Too, of course had Snape really been the dreadful fellow that he appears, he would have had numerous chances to kill Harry right at the end; his excuses of wanting to let the Dark Lord take care of him instead, are pretty unconvincing. Snape continues to deflect Harry’s curses, and finally knocks H down, which is the extent of his “damage”. Also, just a general observation: Snape has been the black sheep from the beginning, and has saved Harry’s life when others thought he was trying to inflict harm on–or kill–Harry, as in Book I. Snape tries to argue away his motives when Bellatrix, early on in Book 6, tries to throw at S every objection she has had towards his actions. However, throughout the books, Snape is always in the background, saving lives; such as Ron’s and Draco’s in Bk 6, and JKR is careful never to draw attention to that fact, but mentions it in passing. But he’s always there, working for “the cause” behind the scenes. As towards the end of Book 5, when Harry thinks that Sirius is in danger and that all hope is lost, realizes that there IS another member of the Order (of the Phoenix) left at Hogwarts: Snape. He tells S in obscure terms what has happened, and Snape–because he is in front of Umbridge–pretends not to understand. Even Harry believes that he didn’t get the message and that S did nothing; when in fact he took action afterwards. A perfect little illustration of Snape’s whole “role”: a sarcastic, morose, malicious exterior, while all the while playing double-agent and doing the right thing behind the scenes, and getting no credit for it; or his actions are misrepresented to be the very opposite of what he is actually doing/intending.