[wendybeth]

Dumbledore removing himself from the scene would leave Harry alone, at least as far as Voldemort's concerned. I think perhaps, just as Voldemort has the horcrux's (something that was only intro'd in the last book) as a means to defeat death, Dumbledore likely has something as well. Could be something untested, which would explain Snape's reluctance to do it and his fierce denial of cowardice to Harry at the end of book 6. Of course, I've also thought that perhaps Snape has been playing Dumbledore and Voldemort all along- being as skilled as he is at occlumency he could be hiding his true intentions from both of them, and Dumbledore might be aware of this and using it to his advantage. Snape and Riddle seem to both be overly-proud and from humble origins- perhaps Snape thinks he should be the ultimate wizard? Look at some of the wicked spells he created at such a youg age- hardly the sign of someone who would settle for a subordinate position in life. And the whole 'half-blood Prince' moniker, which is not unlike 'Lord Voldemort' in it's pretentions.

Sigh. We'll spend all this time and energy looking for answers, and then JK will likely throw another 'horcrux' scenario at us; something that we know absolutely nothing of and therefore could not possibly guess. I hope not, as I think that would be irritatingly lazy writing. I really hate it when authors pull that sort of crap.