Stoppered Death

When I wrote Is Dumbledore Dead?, I tried to avoid giving away my position on the matter so as to allow for better discussion and debate. In comment #3, Allison articulated a version of “Stoppered Death,” and two comments down, I gave in and noted that that is my preferred theory. Sadly, John Granger’s article expounding Stoppered Death (all his articles, in fact) have been taken down from his site [Update: But John assures me all of that work will be available in book form in September; keep an eye on his site for more details].

So my next planned essay was an articulation of the “Stoppered Death” theory, so we could kind of regain our bearings after the “Dumbledore is Dead” debate ended. Maureen of Felicity’s Reflections beat me to it, and I have to say that this is easily the best articulation of “Stoppered Death” on the what is easily the best working theory about what happened on the Astronomy Tower from the “Good Snape” point of view.

This is “Must Reading,” no question about it:

Why Severus Snape Cast a Real Avada Kedavra on the Tower and Why It Wasn’t Murder

See also Janet Batchler’s explanation of Stoppered Death which resulted from a BNU discussion with Cathy Liesner herself, John Granger, and the many others in that class.

Update: Jeremy at “Eating Words” weighs in on the theory.

Another Update: It has come to my attention that I did not cite Cathy Liesner as the initial source for “Stoppered Death,” which I should have done. She proposed the theory in one of John Granger’s BNU classes, and John expanded on it in the article which I had previously mentioned was taken down. Just wanted to give credit where credit is due!