Re: hp7 deaths: McGonagall and Hagrid because...

On 11 Feb 2007 16:16:05 -0800, nystulc@xxxxxx wrote:


gjw wrote:
On 11 Feb 2007 01:16:48 -0800, nystulc@xxxxxx wrote:
DD assures Draco [from memory] "It is my mercy, not yours, that
matters now." Draco has barely time to react to this before the
DE's arrive. It is extremely difficult to see how any faster
reaction by Draco, after DD uttered these words, could have made
any difference at all. Either DD was dead wrong, and his mercy
did not matter at all at that late stage, or DD knows something
we don't.

Dumbledore is not psychic. He didn't know the exact moment when
the DE's would break into the tower. Nor did he foresee Snape
betraying him (rather than rescuing him). Draco was holding him
a wand point while the DE/Order battle raged outside the door.
Dumbledore was desperately trying to talk Draco into letting them
go, and part of that sales pitch was the genuine promise that he
could hide Draco if they were allowed to go free. They were never
allowed to go free, and Snape murdered Dumbledore before he had a
chance to do anything.

In short, you think that DD was dead wrong when he uttered those words
(however understandable his mistake). I suspect otherwise, of course,
but we are just going to have to wait for Book 7.


No. You still misunderstand what I am saying. He told Draco that it
was his mercy that counted - and it was. His merciful offer to try to
help the kid who was (at the moment) trying to kill him was Draco's
only real hope of ever escaping the Death Eater organization.
Dumbledore told Draco that he was willing to help hide him and his
family - and he was indeed willing. The only thing he was wrong about
was the hope that he would have the time to act on those words...

That was an unpredictable x-factor influenced by several conditions:
when the DE's would manage to enter the tower; how well the Order
members would respond to the DE challenge; how long Draco would take
to give in (if ever); how long Dumbledore himself would survive in his
weakened state, etc. Had the Order held off the DE's for a few more
minutes, or had Draco surrendered a few minutes earlier, or had the
DE's just turned tail and ran... Dumbledore would have had time to act
on his promise to hide Draco. Unfortunately, death interfered with
those plans.



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