I don’t know how JKR will pull it off, as the more times I re-read the story the more loose ends I find that need to be tied… but it’s going to be fun finding out!

Cheers
Dave

It wouldn’t hurt either to know what he meant when he said: “Severus . . . please.”

Dumbledore’s “Rosebud”.

Yes, that’s what I also believe. Dumbledore was more concerned about the salvation of Dracos soul than about his own life. That would make it even more dramatic had he actually asked Snape on the tower to take his life.

Rena wrote There is one aspect of forgiving that has not yet been discussed here and that I would like to contribute. I believe, that both Harry and Snape will only be able to fogive each other when they manage to forgive themselves.

That is an important aspect, I think, more than anyone else, Snape has to forgive Snape. Another aspect, that goes hand in hand with it, would be to accept the forgiveness of others. Snape couldn’t truly be redeemed by Dumbledores grace, if he didn’t accept it. Because, as it has been said before, forgiveness is about the forgiver in the first place. It becomes effective for the forgiven, as he or she acknowledges it.

Rena wrote And now both (or one) of them seem to have caused the death of Dumbledore, another beloved person (again, I’m speculating about Snape’s feelings) – Harry by force-feeding him the potion, Snape by casting the AK. Again, the boy with the untarnished soul and the former Death Eater have something in common.

With the distinction that Snape knew the AK would be lethal, while Harry didn’t know how the potion would work. He only fed Dumbledore the potion, after Dumbledore reassured him, that it wouldn’t kill him, at least not immediately. Otherwise he might have disobeyed. And yet, Dumbledore in his agony told Harry “kill me!” in the end. Was that what he was asking of Snape? I believe, that it was the AK that actually killed Dumbledore.

I comfort myself by thinking that if Cordelia had just told her Dad that she loved him “lots”, and if Desdemona had just told her husband that she lost the damn handkerchief, and if the witches had just told Macbeth that MacDuff’s mother had a Caesarean section, then the world would have missed out on some great drama.

All that thrashing around in the dark, only to find out at the end of the book that Harry has spent the whole school year up a blind alley, is all very well, but I think the story of his life and struggle would be pretty interesting anyway – without all the plot contrivances to keep us in suspenders.

it was a plot requirement. If he had said: “Look, boy…”, then there wouldn’t have been a story to tell, would there?

Yes, there would. It would just have been a *different* story!

korg20000bc – I think your view on forgiving is very wise, and it appears to me that JKR sees it exactly like that. I believe you can also apply it to killing: The tragedy is more about the killer than about the victim. If Dumbledore had been forced to choose between saving someone from being killed or from killing somebody else – I’m sure he would have chosen to do the latter (at least if there was no way to do both at a time). This is how I understand “killing rips the soul apart” and “there are things much worse than death”.

There is one aspect of forgiving that has not yet been discussed here and that I would like to contribute. I believe, that both Harry and Snape will only be able to fogive each other when they manage to forgive themselves.

Harry did not forgive himself for his contribution to Sirius’ death. He made an attempt to face it but he couldn’t bear it and suppressed his horrible feelings. Thus he unconsciously decided to blame and hate sombody else. Snape was the most suitable candidate. This is not good, but it is comprehensible and very human.

It would not surprise me, if Snape had something very similar going on about the Potters’ death (especially Lily’s, I suppose), blaming James for some reckless action we do not yet know about (or maybe for chosing Sirius / Peter as their secret-ceeper), and transferring his hate to Harry in order to turn away from himself feeling guilty.

So both have lost a beloved person (which, of course, is mere speculation regarding Snape) and seem to be stuck in suppressed feelings of guilt and in the 2nd stage of grief. (Seriously_black, I didn’t recognize that JKR was referring to E. Kübler-Ross. Thank you for providing that information. I looked it up in my german version of “Of Death and Dying” and found that the five stages were originally about the fear of death, not about the grief of the bereaved. Interesting. Probably not Voldemort’s favorite book …)

And now both (or one) of them seem to have caused the death of Dumbledore, another beloved person (again, I’m speculating about Snape’s feelings) – Harry by force-feeding him the potion, Snape by casting the AK. Again, the boy with the untarnished soul and the former Death Eater have something in common. And I believe that both acted on Dumbledores orders and neither of them killed him. There is more to come about how he really died …