More thoughts. I think Snape's a goner in Book 7, but only after we find out that he really was fighting on the side of good against Voldy. I also think she still has to have a Pettigrew/Lupin showdown, which I've always assumed would bode ill for poor Remus, but we'll see.
I've read Book 6 only once yet and haven't really studied it as some have, so others are welcome to shoot down my guesses/interpretations. I don't think Dumbledore planned or foresaw the climactic events of the book; I think it was one of those chains-of-events where one mishap triggers another until everything piles up in tragedy. First, Snape gets roped into the Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa - I don't think he knows at that point what Draco's task is; he's trying to manipulate Cissy and Bella to find out. Once he finds out - oh, bloody hell, this is bad... Draco's task is to kill Dumbledore; Draco comes up with the idea of the travelling cabinets on his own (he ditches his mother to visit Knockturn Alley and tells Borgin not to tell anyone, even her, what he's up to) so he can call in some Death Eater backup when the time comes. Snape tells Dumbledore about Draco and the Vow, and Dumbles tells Snape we can't let Draco do murder; if push comes to shove, you're going to have to kill me to spare him. Dumbles has figured that Voldy has been making Horcruxes, for which Harry gets confirmation from Slughorn. He has a good guess at where one is (the Cave where Young Tom terrorized the little orphans years ago), and he can bet that V will have gone to great pains to protect it, and there will be grave danger in recovering it, but I don't think he knows just what he's facing until he and Harry get there and D realizes what he's going to have to do. I do NOT think he has any reason to know or believe that the object in the basin in the cave is a decoy and not the real locket/horcrux. I think he does know that once he drinks the potion he is doomed, and that once Draco has put his plot in motion, D
needs Snape to kill him to fulfill the Vow. I think Snape is thoroughly furious/ frustrated /pick some words by the end of all this because he's been forced to do something that has now made him Public Enemy #1 to D's allies, and his life is now royally screwed up. (Whew, that got long!)
I don't think that anyone was using polyjuice or masquerading as anyone else in this - It would be too much of a cop-out, and she already pulled that trick in Book 4.
"In my own little corner..."
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