Yet Another Snape Theory

DovieLR

Story Summary:
Why Snape's killing Dumbledore may have been A Good Thing, and Snape's new responsibility.

Chapter 01

Posted:
12/19/2006
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725

Theory: Why Snape's killing Dumbledore may have been A Good Thing

Others have argued that between the potion and the ring, Dumbledore would not have been long for this world, and while I don't disagree with that entirely, I think it's only half right. The potion would have killed him, certainly, if R. A. B. is any indication. The ring, however ... I'm not so sure. Definitely, Dumbledore's hand looked to be dead or dying, but the rest of his body? We may never know. But I think there's something much more insidious at work. I think the fragment of soul that was inside the ring was possessing Dumbledore, or at least trying to possess him.

Dumbledore did not hesitate to tell Voldemort that there are worse fates than death (OotP 36), and I would imagine being possessed by your mortal enemy while you're the Secret-Keeper of the chief organization devoted to fighting that enemy would be right up at the top of the list.*

Now, why did I jump to the idea of possession? Well, possession seems very much to be Voldie's modus operandi. For example:
  1. he possessed animals when he was bodiless (GoF 33),
  2. he possessed Quirrell to procure the Stone (PS/SS 17, GoF 33),
  3. he possessed Ginny through the diary (CoS 17, HBP 23),
  4. he possessed Nagini to make her attack Arthur in the Dept. of Mysteries (OotP 21-22), and
  5. he possessed Harry in the lobby of the Ministry of Magic (OotP 36-37).
In fact, there is evidence to suggest that Tom Riddle may have even been able to possess people and animals before he came to Hogwarts. He could make animals — not just snakes — do what he wanted without training them, and Dumbledore says he could consciously use his powers to frighten, punish, and control other people (HBP 13), before he even knew he was a wizard. But those possibilities aside, the above list clearly shows that possession is second-nature to him. When in doubt, possess. In addition, Dumbledore apparently knows of Voldemort's predisposition towards possession. He tells Harry that he was afraid Voldemort would try to possess him, with the aim of getting Dumbledore to kill him (OotP 37). He also says that Voldie made the diary with the specific aim of having that fragment of soul inhabit or possess someone (HBP 23).

Now, Dumbledore did say that the ring had a "terrible curse" on it (HBP 23), but that could have merely been short-hand, rather than saying the fragment of soul inside the ring was possessing him. It was certainly much more succinct, but think about it: would Harry have been as willing to listen to Dumbledore during his lessons if he knew Dumbledore was housing a seventh of Voldemort's soul? I'm thinking no. ;-)

Harry is very suspicious where Voldemort is concerned, and he has reason to be, even if he hated Snape enough not to take his Occlumency lessons seriously. At the back of his mind would always be the suspicion that Voldemort might be listening, and he would be afraid to tell Dumbledore what was on his mind, and perhaps even afraid to listen to Dumbledore, always wondering if it was Dumbledore or Voldemort talking. If you were Dumbledore, and you already knew you had a limited amount of time to give Harry the information that he needed to know to defeat Voldemort, would you compromise that in any way by telling Harry that you just happened to have a part of Voldemort hitching a ride in your body? I wouldn't, either.

And of course, Dumbledore did have a tendency to hide vital information from Harry when such information was inconvenient to his immediate goal — such as the fact that Snape was the one who told Voldemort about the prophecy (HBP 25). He certainly found enough excuses not to tell Harry the details of what happened with the ring. He puts off the explanation no less than four times, that I remember:
  1. at Privett Drive, though this instance is perfectly understandable (HBP 3),
  2. on the way to see Slughorn (HBP 4),
  3. before they view the first memory about the Gaunts (HBP 10),
  4. and again at the end of that lesson (HBP 10).
I don't think that was an accident. I think Dumbledore never had any intention of telling Harry what really happened, for the reasons mentioned above. The question then becomes, if Dumbledore knew from the example of the diary that the fragment of soul he was harboring could eventually begin to act and think for itself, why would he tell Harry how to destroy Voldemort when the fragment of soul might be listening? Personally, I don't think he would have had much of a choice, although he would be betting an awful lot on the possibility that the fragment of soul he was carrying would be destroyed before Voldemort managed to take him over. Which brings us to Snape.

I would be willing to wager that Dumbledore is probably a sufficiently powerful Occlumens to keep the fragment of soul out of his thoughts and memories under normal circumstances, but probably not all the time, which would explain why Draco's plot to kill him didn't unsettle him. Others have also argued that throughout the sixth book, Dumbledore is acting very much like a man who is putting his affairs in order, and I agree with that assessment wholeheartedly, albeit for a different reason. Dumbledore wanted to die — fairly soon, if not immediately — to prevent the fragment of Voldemort's soul from taking him over and making him kill Harry. And wouldn't it be a delicious irony if Voldemort's plot to kill Dumbledore took a seventh of his own soul with it?

It would also, of course, show that Snape was still very much Dumbledore's man because in killing him, Snape is in essence destroying the Dumbledore Horcrux and getting Harry that much closer to killing Voldemort, even if on the surface it looks as if he is a loyal Death Eater. Dumbledore said that he believes Voldemort's soul has been mutilated so much that he would not know when a fragment had been destroyed (HBP 23), so even that — the destruction of that fragment of soul on the night Snape killed Dumbledore — would not betray Snape's true loyalties.

Now, you're probably thinking that Dumbledore said that the fragment of soul in the ring had been destroyed, but that's not entirely accurate. He said in so many words that the ring Horcrux has been destroyed, but had the fragment of soul that was inside it been destroyed? I'd say that it has been now, although it might not have been then. He says for certain that the fragment of soul Harry encountered in the diary has been destroyed, but he makes no such declaration regarding the fragment of soul in the ring (HBP 23). The closest he gets to that is "[t]he ring is no longer a Horcrux" (HBP 23).

That could mean, of course, that the fragment of soul has been destroyed, but it could just as easily mean that the fragment of soul is no longer inside the ring. If that fragment were inside Dumbledore, and he had become the new Horcrux, he would certainly be in a position to know for certain that the ring was no longer a Horcrux, even if he stopped just short of telling Harry where that particular fragment of soul finally ended up. It would certainly lend more credence to Dumbledore's statement that "confid[ing] a part of yuor soul to something that can think and move for itself is obviously a very risky business" (HBP 23). Especially if your new Horcrux has been actively plotting your downfall for a number of years.

The question now is, why would the fragment of soul try to possess Dumbledore in the first place? We know why the diary would try to possess someone — supposedly. The initial purpose was to open the Chamber of Secrets and "finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work" (CoS 17), but once Ginny had told the fragment of soul in the diary about the famous boy she fancied, it had a new target: Harry (CoS 17). Even with the incomplete information that soul fragment had, it recognized that Harry was a threat and set an elaborate trap to ensnare and attempt to destroy him (CoS 17).

After learning that there was "nothing special" about Harry, however, the soul fragment was still determined to kill him (CoS 17) — most likely to preserve Tom's secrets. What do the thirst to find out how Harry destroyed Voldemort and possessing Dumbledore have in common? I would say survival. That's why Voldemort started making Horcruxes in the first place: to conquer death. Therefore he simply had to know how a little baby managed to rip out the fragment of soul that remained in Voldemort's body. Possessing Dumbledore would also ensure the survival of the soul fragment in the ring — at least for a little while longer, and possibly a lot longer, if the fragment could eventually control Dumbledore.

You'll notice the fragment of soul in the diary didn't know about Harry until Ginny told him, and the ring Horcrux — having been produced at around the same time — wouldn't either. The diary fragment knew Dumbledore quite well, however, so the ring fragment would have, too. Sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle knew better than to try to charm Dumbledore (CoS 17, HBP 17), so the fragments of soul in both the ring and diary would have known not to try that, either, as the diary charmed Ginny to possess her. Therefore, if the soul fragment in the ring were going to attempt to possess Dumbledore, it wouldn't have wasted time charming him. It would have been more likely to attempt to possess him by force. Hence, the injured hand.

If the fragment of soul were inside Dumbledore, it would have heard Dumbledore tell Harry that Lord Voldemort tried to kill him in 1981 (HBP 10), so it, too, would have recognized Harry as a threat, with or without full knowledge of the prophecy (although I certainly won't dismiss the possibility that the fragment of soul could have access to Dumbledore's thoughts and memories, as well).* Just as Voldemort possessed Harry in the hopes of getting Dumbledore to kill him, the fragment of soul inside Dumbledore would probably also try to get Dumbledore to kill Harry.

If this theory is correct, then during the sixth book, Dumbledore was probably having to fight off the impulse to kill Harry constantly, and that would be all the more difficult when he was weak. Do we see an instance in which the strain is starting to show? I think we do: when Harry is forcing Dumbledore to drink the potion to get the locket. Naturally, we all assumed that what Dumbledore babbles in that cave are just the ramblings of an old man who doesn't want to drink any more of the potion and who has done some, er, questionable things over the course of his exceptionally long life (HBP 26), but upon closer inspection, that might not be the case.

Even if the "no, don't make me, I don't want to," etc. (HBP 26), do not relate to Voldemort's actively trying to force Dumbledore to kill Harry at that moment, I would imagine Dumbledore's ability to perform Occlumency to keep the fragment of soul away from his guarded memories would be seriously compromised. And the "Severus ... please ..." in the next chapter could very well be a plea for Snape to kill him before Voldemort completely takes him over (HBP 27). Even if the fragment didn't manage to force Dumbledore to kill Harry, he certainly wouldn't want a bunch of Death Eaters to witness its taking control of him, would he? They would no doubt tell their master that he was minus a Horcrux, even if they themselves didn't know what Dumbledore's strange manner meant.

*Corollary: Snape's new responsibility

We know that when a Secret-Keeper dies, the status of the secret that person kept was exactly the same as when the person died (i.e., only those people who previously knew the secret will know it, and no one else can ever know because the Secret-Keeper can no longer tell them). Assuming that Dumbledore knew he was going to die — and he does seem to have anticipated that throughout most of HBP — why go to all the trouble of making sure the Order could still use 12 Grimmauld Place as headquarters if no new Order members would be able to enter the building after he died? Not to mention there could be lots of other secrets Dumbledore might have been keeping for the Order that we aren't aware of, as yet.

In addition, if Dumbledore was being possessed by Voldemort, and the fragment of soul inside him had access to his thoughts and memories, he would have taken steps to protect the Order's Secrets. Which again, in my opinion, brings us to Snape. Now, I will admit, when I first read the bit about Hagrid overhearing the argument between Dumbledore and Snape, I thought something about it was a little off — besides the fact that it was an overheard conversation, which Rowling has already used once to try and mislead us, when Harry overhears Snape and Quirrell in the Forbidden Forest (PS/SS 13). And this time, it was worse, considering that it was second-hand information.

Like everybody else, at first I assumed Snape meant that Dumbledore was taking it for granted that he could kill him, and maybe he didn't want to do it any longer. Of course, that is assuming that Snape wanted to kill Dumbledore in the first place, and I doubt that was the case. Well, maybe Snape would have wanted to kill Dumbledore at the end of PoA, but probably not since then (and if he had to want to kill Dumbledore to use Avada Kedavra — at least according to Bellatrix — what happened in the hospital wing that night may have been what he was concentrating on. But I digress...).

Here's the thing, though: Snape has already made an Unbreakable Vow, hasn't he? If Draco can't kill Dumbledore, Snape has to do it or die himself. End of story. Case closed. What good would it do to argue with Dumbledore about it? The most he could do would be offer to sacrifice himself instead, which Dumbledore would never go for. Whatever they were fighting about was is also apparently affected (negatively) by Snape's level of stress. Now I ask you, is a stressed-out former Death Eater going to be unable to kill somebody when the time comes? Especially someone who has repeatedly made him look foolish in front of his students, when the what he seems to want most is respect? My answer would be a big, fat, "No."

But there are other things that a stressed-out former Death Eater might have trouble with. Like, say — just for the sake of argument — his ability to do Occlumency. Which would directly affect him if he happened to be the Order's new Secret-Keeper. And the "taking too much for granted" could refer to Voldemort's inability to penetrate Snape's mind. If that's the case, I could definitely see him having second thoughts about taking on such a large responsibility. And I don't think Snape was the Secret-Keeper in the second chapter of HBP, when he told Bellatrix and Narcissa that he wasn't, but he was afterward, when Bellatrix has much less reason to mistrust him. Not to mention the very last place Voldemort would look for the Order's new Secret-Keeper is his favorite, most loyal Death Eater, who just dispatched Dumbledore for him. It is the perfect ruse.

As one last aside, the simple fact that Snape was arguing with Dumbledore to me is very telling with regards to his loyalties. With his temper raised like that, his ability to do Occlumency would naturally have to ebb (clearing the mind of emotion and all that). That leads me to believe that Snape doesn't feel threatened in arguing with Dumbledore because he has nothing to hide from Dumbledore. Notice he doesn't allow himself to get all riled up like that when Bellatrix is shooting accusations at him in Spinner's End (HBP 2). I think that says a lot ... but I could just be deluding myself. ;-)