More on "Harry Potter 6": spoiler discussion

For those of you who haven't read "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" yet but plan to do so, just move on, no need to go below the fold. . . .

Okay, still here?

So the big twist in HP #6 is that Severus Snape, the Potions teacher who hates Harry Potter and who comes across as an altogether jerk (awarding points arbitrarily in favor of his house, Slytherin; etc.) but who nevertheless is on the side of the good guys, backstabs Albus Dumbledore, killing the good wizard when Dumbledore is weak and surrounded by Death Eaters.

The Baseball Crank puts it well when he writes:

I felt rather betrayed by the revelation that Snape had been a bad guy all along. First of all, the whole "Snape's on the good side but is a jerk and hates Harry" and "the kids always suspect Snape but they still have much to learn about people" plotlines gave the story some complexity that was lost here.

There are, however, further discussions that Snape killed Dumbledore in order to preserve his "cover" with Voldemort.

I hope so.  Not because I necessarily like Snape, but because I agree with the Crank that the complexity of character involved when Snape is a dastardly good guy is more satisfying than the "he was a bad guy all along" approach.  Plus, I'm always impressed when writers (and here I speak primarily of TV writers) have the guts to have their characters play by the rules -- in other words, no Capt. Kirk-style Kobayashi Maru cheating to get out of a tough situation. 

I loved the horrible situation that Jack Bauer found himself in season 3 of "24," when terrorist Stephen Saunders ordered CTU to murder its director, Ryan Chappelle, or else he would release his deadly virus within the United States.  CTU tried valiantly to find Saunders, but when they ran out of time, Bauer marched Chappelle to the designated spot and, after Chappelle was unable to shoot himself, Bauer said, "God forgive me," and shot Chappelle in the back of the head.

Think what that does to your soul and conscience!

It's certainly plausible that Snape acted within Dumbledore's dictates.  We know that Dumbledore is willing to go to all ends to stop Voldemort; after all, Dumbledore stumbles through book 6 with a mangled arm, courtesy of a booby trap set to protect one of Voldemort's horcruxes; and, on the secret mission with Harry, Dumbledore willingly drinks some unknown liquid (which turns out to be some kind of poison) to get to what he thinks is another horcrux.  On that same mission, Dumbledore makes Harry promise to do whatever he (Dumbledore) orders him to do.

So I can imagine that Dumbledore might have told Snape to use his discretion to do whatever was necessary to preserve his cover, even if it meant killing Dumbledore.

On the other hand, it's also possible that Snape couldn't make up his mind about which side he wanted to be on, but when the opportunity to take out Dumbledore arose, he really did cast his lot with the bad guys. . . .

Comments

[kmg]

I feel a little dorktastic having such a fully formed theory on this, but there's no convincing me that Snape is unrepentently evil. In classic JK Rowling fashion, all the clues are there that Snape was acting on Dumbledore's orders in killing him. I think the key is what Dumbledore tells Harry in their private lessons when he's explaining horacruxes, about how killing a person changes the killer fundamentally. Dumbledore and Snape wanted to protect Draco from having to shoulder that.

That's the line I'm cleaving to until Book 7 comes out.

[kristine]

Ditto kmg. I said the same in my review of the book. Dumbledore saw how terrified Malfoy was at the prospect of actually having to go through with the plan, and he wanted to prevent Malfoy (horrid as he is) from taking that irreversible step.

Plus, I think Dumbledore and Snape had an agreement in place that Snape's cover was more important than almost anything.

[Joe Kristan]

I would prefer the "mole" theory, as I thought Snape was more interesting as an ambiguous character, but I can't believe it. Who would he report to? Or would he somehow be a free agent, like Harry?

[Paul Horwitz]

I wasn't so crazy about the book, or really the last 50 pages or so. But leaving that aside, I tend to agree with the prediction that Snape will not be shown to have been evil -- for one thing, and this kind of predictability is what sours me on the books, the more vehemently Harry advances a theory, the less likely it is to be true. More importantly, I agree that Dumbledore (with Snape's assistance) does not believe Draco is irretrievably evil, and wants to save him from the burden of becoming evil. In this, and in Harry's gradually developing pity for Draco, I find an interesting and fairly well-done development of a potential relationship between Harry and Draco that parallels that between Dumbledore and Snape.

[szs]

Hi. Nice blog.

This book emphasizes two things about Snape, that he is a master of Oculomancy, and that he is truly a brilliant wizard. The Oculomancy is important to show that he can lie to anyone. As for his powers, we can assume that he used his textbook at the same age that Harry and pals use theirs, and he was already modifying recipes and creating advanced spells. Not even Hermione can match his skills here. As he fled the castle, he flicked away Harry's worst curses as if they were gnats.

Also, Snape is the person in the best position to redeem Malfoy. If you go back through the books, the interchanges between Lucien and Draco show a boy desperate for love and respect of the father he idolizes, and a father quick to point out how the boy disappoints him. Draco and his mother have both been witnessed by other Death Eaters as unwilling to face or cause death, and in both cases they have been protected by Snape. When we read the claptrap about love being the most potent magic, I suspect that this group will be Voldemort's downfall.

Sad as I am to say it, I am not convinced Dumbledore is dead. Dumbledore gives Malfoy a long talk about how they can fake deaths to hide people, and then is killed. Sirius Black and Buckbeak are both living in the Pheonix Witness Relocation Program already. We only see Dumbledore's corpse briefly, followed by several mentions of Fawkes crying in the background. If Dumbledore were gravely wounded, Fawkes' tears would help restore him. At the funeral, his body is never seen, only a lumpy sack and a tomb. Maybe he's alive, maybe he's dead, and maybe he's a ghost. Maybe this was a crafty red herring. I am not ready to accept any conclusion yet.

[jj c-k]

I'm confused, though, about why Dumbledore drank the poison. This may seem simplistic, but surely he could have syphoned it out and poured it into a container vs. drinking it. Am I daft? Or is this not an obvious alternative?

[Andrew]

Who was the auror that lead harry through platform 9 and 3/4?? Mrs Weasley looks at the concealed man but does not say his name. She just looks at him and says right. She must have known this mans name but why keep it from everybody?? Who is this mystery man?? Could it have been Sirius in disguise or just a nobody?

[Jake]

Hi I just had a thery about snape. I think that snape is not evil. I think Dumbledore told snape to kill him becuase he knew that the potion he drank would kill him. So all the death eaters would think that snape was now on there side with no conflitcs. Does anyone think thats possable.

[Cindi]

I agree about the potion being deadly and with the idea that the murder being a coverup. It is assumed that Dumbledore is pleading for Snape to save his life. But what if he is in fact pleading for Snape to go ahead and kill him?

[MOON]

I think these are some interesting theories. I do not think that Serius is alive or he would not have 'fallen through the veil'. Also there were 2 mysterious Aurors, not 1. Dumbledore's body being seen as a lumpy sack is interesting. I had a theory that somehow Dumbledore and Snape had traded places with a polyjuice potion or some high end spell. Because in many of their lessons Dumbledore is described by JKR in a very 'undumbledorian' way. 'agitated' And he never fully explains his withered hand or why he has to wear the ring, the real Dumbledore's got no need for trophies. Maybe however destroying that particular Horcrux forces the destroyer to wear it. Dumbledore wouldn't wear something of Voldemorts, Marvolo's or Slytherins, it also sounded too gaudy for him to wear. The ring? Anyone?
-SuperNERD!

[jjc-k]

Could Harry himself be a Horcrux? Voldemort had just killed his mother and the prophecy itself says that neither can live while the other survives ... or something like that.

[Monika]

As a hopeless optimist, I have a theory on what could have happened. Throughout the series, we know that Dumbloedore has this unbreakable trust in Snape, and no one can figure out why Dumbledore trusts him so much. Is it possible that Snape and Dumbledore were bound by an unbreakable vow? In that case, the Vow that Snape made with Draco's mom would be secondary to that (and invalid), making it possible for Dumbledore to return.
I just need to believe that Dumbledore is able to return, and I definitely don't believe that Snape is "evil" - that would be too easy, even for J.K. Rowling.

[Teresa]

I agree with a lot of things written down in here. They all seem to have many possibilities. I do have a good feeling that Snape might have just tried to trick what side he is on again. Dumbledore had a really good reason for trusting snape. I dont or I just can't believe that Dumbledore would wimper as he had when Snape pointed at him. The possibility also that they traded places is interesting but even if Dumbledore seemed unlike himself sometimes he also acted himself most of the time. I also thought of the idea of Malfoy and Harry becoming friends. Another interesting thing that I noticed in teh book was when Harry made the similarities between Malfoy and Tonks. How they both looked weak and grey in the faces. Maybe something was going on there? A lot of things made me wonder in this book but maybe it wont be as complicated as we are all thinking because this book is made for a general audience. Another thought that I agreed with and also thought of was Harry also being a horocrux. THat made me deeply sad. I cant imagine the irony in that. I dont see Hermione or Ron dying but I can see Harry dying. One of those,'In order to kill him you must kill me." Its amazing to see how much everything fell apart in the last few years for Harry.

[dood]

Remember when dumbledore said it was a bad idea to make a horacrux of an animal because it could die? Maybe if Harry is the horacrux he wouldnt have to kill himself to stop voldemort. J.K Rowling wouldnt make Harry die.

[HumanHorcrux]

I like that Snape turned out to be bad and that Dumbledore died. In books, movies, whatever... good always prevails. BORING! End with death and despair and dictation where there is no hope. This is a childrens book, though. So, like all others, good must prevail. Plus, even though I say that, I want Harry to win. If it were any other story I stick with what I said 110%.
And I'm not a fanatic so I might not be accurate but diddn't the prophecy say something about one must die. Anyways, Harry couldn't be a Horcrux then. But are prophecies always true? So he could be.
But we aren't even close to the conclusion of Harry's story, so I will say no more.

[Nika]

To me the whole idea of Dumbledore dramatically dying at the end of the novel is too cliche, although as you have all stated there is a possibility of the death being staged, I was unsatisfied. The beauty of these series is the neverending connections and unpredictable ironic situations. Although I will admit I have no theories of my own, I enjoyed reading yours, and admit I have never cried so hard at the end of a book.

[Ryan]

I think that Snape is a character not unlike Darth Vader in ROTJ--a soul that is truly in confilict between good (guilt for having relayed part of the prophecy to Voldemort, vital role in the Order, etc) and evil (bitterness at his childhood, need to be seen a powerful, etc). I also think that Dumbledore has always known this.

Dumbledore's character has always been about faith in goodness, trust, love, and hope in people--he showed it with Tom Riddle, he showed it with Harry (obviously), he showed it with Hagrid, he showed it with Malfoy, and, I think that he was likewise giving Snape a chance to make the right choice. In Book 5, he told Voldemort (in the Ministry) something like, "There are things much worse than death," and during that same scene, it was again demonstrated that love is more powerful than Dark power (when Voldemort could not tolerate possessing Harry). This use of Dumbledore's character as ultimate faith in the goodness of people is a repeated theme (the Death Eaters all believe it to be his weakness), and I think that Dumbledore's faithfulness to this ultimate power/truth (of love) was unwaivering to the point of death by Snape's hand.

With this as the backdrop, I would then say that Snape had killed Dumbledore for evil intentions--that evil was winning (though not completely) internally in Snape at that point. Thus, my prediction is that in Book 7, because Dumbledore "never gave up" on Snape (much like Luke never did on Vader), Snape will ultimately choose good and have a significant part in Voldemort's downfall (maybe even dying in the effort).

All this would explain Dumbledore's unwaivering, yet unexplained, commitment to Snape. It also makes Snape an even more complex character study (as one goes back and "reads into" his actions in all six books).

[Tom]

Look Boys and girls, it's pretty obvious. Turn away if you don't want book seven ruined for you. First off, the seven horcruxes.
1. Voldemort himself, of course
2. Nagini
3. Ring
4. Diary
5. Goblet
6. Locket, distroyed??
7. Ginny Weasley.
I know it's hard to believe, but Voldemort says it plain and simple In the Chamber Of Secrets, when talking to Harry. He said, "Powerful enough to start feeding miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her..." pg. 310, check if you don't believe me. The only part that makes me doubt this is that a horcrux must be made after killing someone, however, Voldemort is very powerful.
I also agree that R.A.B. is Regalus Black, who is dead as far as I'm concerned. However I'm willing to bet that Harry will find out what Regalus has done through Kreacher. Thank God for that pleasant little house elf.
I'm also willing to bet big galleons that Snape Harry and even possibly Malfoy end up working together at the end of the last book.
The best part of all is the part where Voldemort won't be able to kill Harry again, for a differen't reason. In the end of the third book, Harry steps in front of Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin (both completely ready to kill Pettigrew), and tells them not to kill him, because that's not what his dad would have wanted. Then at the very end, Dumbledore says something very interesting. He said some magic, so much stronger than the magic that wizards are capable of, now resides between Harry and pettigrew, connecting them. When Pettigrew offers his hand to Voldemort, some of that connection is passed from Pettigrew to Voldemort. The connection of one wizard sparing the life of another. I bet that Pettigrew might even die in the attempt to save Harry's life. If not, then here's a great way for you to end your book JKR!
As for dumbledore being dead, I don't want to believe it's true, and there are some signs that I agree make it unlikely that he's dead, but there's always that possibility.

[selah9]

Dumbledore is dead because the author said so.

Here is a new theory: Perhaps Snape will live and be the new Dark Lord.

Reason: The Dark Arts were said to be like a many headed monster. When you cut off its head, another will appear in its place, more powerful than ever. I think this means that, even if Voldemort is killed and dies, another Dark Lord will soon arise in his place. Who will that be? Why not Snape? Doesn't he know a lot about the dark arts, and isn't that his greatest ambition, to be a Dark Arts professor?

[R.A.B.]

Ok, I cant bring myself to believe that Snape was acting without Dumbledor's concent. That leaves me with two options: dumbledor is alive or part alive and his death was staged, or Dumbledor is dead, and Snape killed him in order to save Young Malfoy (all under Dumbledor's order). First off, Snape made the unbreakable vow at the begining of this book. The important part of the vow stated that he must complete the job which Voldimort gave draco if he fails. Well, we do not know exactly what was said between the dark lord and draco. Dumbledor tells draco before he dies that there are ways to fake death and hide. I am sure that Snape was fully aware of a backup plan to use in just this type of situation. Next up, Dumbledor fought voldemort in the end of book 5. Fawks saved him from one of the death curses thrown his way. Where was the pheonix this time? he could have easily been there for his master again. Then why did the death curse throw dumbledor out the window??? it never reacted that way before. In this book they put a lot of emphasis in casting spells without saying a word. Also Moody (while teaching his dark arts class a few books back) told the class that they could all attempt the death curse on him and he wouldn't even get a bloody nose. Also it was stated that to kill or tourture you have to mean it, I dont think Snape was capable of this towards dumbledor.

Of course we cannot forget that Harry chased Snape down, and Snape showed Harry why he wasn't ready to face voldemort during their upcomming battle. He showed harry to learn to close his mind or he will never win. He also stopped other death eaters from touching harry. Doesn't seem like a bad guy to me.

Now if dumbledor is dead, it still doesn't make snape evil. Dumbledor knew about snape helping malfoy with his mission, he knew about the mission all along but put malfoy's safety before his own. Then at the moment of justice the death eaters arrive, and Snape does the dirty work. Dumbledor didn't want to have malfoy kill, and so he put the task on one with more experience in that type of field. He begged Snape to do what was needed to save his pupil and snape abliged. I have a good feeling we will see Snape get his dignity back in the last book. After all, this battle has been raging for 6 books now, and at the end of each book, Snape's true colors are shown and he has not, till now, done anything against dumbledor's wishes. I think its a trend that will continue

[R.A.B.]

one last thing: I do not believe that Harry is a horcrux for one reason only. the proficy states that one cannot live while the other survives. Well then in the end, only one of them will die, because till that the other cannot truely live. it doesn't say anything about one can only live if the otherone is also alive... the logic doesn't match that statement. Also, I take it as fact that voldemort tried to kill harry as a child, the spell backfired due to his mothers protection, which in turn killed voldemort. Although it makes perfect sense that voldemort could make harry a horcrux to make sure the last wizard able to kill him would have to die to do it. however, he was trying to kill harry, now why make him a horcrux and then kill him? and why kill off his family members to let him live? nope, logic doesn't fit for me here