[HPforGrownups] Can we believe in Dumbledore?

[Sister Mary Lunatic]

No: HPFGUIDX 11615

I find Dumbledore very fallible and sometimes frighteningly ineffective.
The first time I really felt that way was the scene when he was consoling
the Weasleys on the loss of Ginny, all the while Harry and Ron were in the
Chamber of Secrets fighting Tom Riddle and rescuing Ginny.  If D is such a
great wizard, why didn't he know what was happening?  Or worse, DID he know,
and left Harry to deal with it because it was good training?  URF!  Four
lives could have been lost that day (Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Lockhart).  At
least D's phoenix (Fawkes) went to the rescue...

He fails to prevent Sirius Black from entering Hogwarts.  He nearly loses
Harry to the Dementors.  He provides Harry and the others with many
opportunities to make fatal mistakes... for example: giving an 11-year-old
boy an invisibility cloak, allowing detentions to be spent in the Forbidden
Forest at midnight, letting Harry and Hermione play with time in an effort
to rescue Buckbeak and Sirius, failing to prevent the Dementors from
entering Hogwarts on two occasions (once when they came to get Sirius, and
again when they came to get Barty Crouch Jr.)

He also fails to spot the impostor Moody during an entire school year, and
fails to prevent Voldemort from kidnapping Harry right out from under his
nose at the end of Goblet of Fire.  Again, a VERY fallible Dumbledore.
Perhaps he has been lulled into carelessness by the preceding decade of
peace.  Harry does notice that as the events are unfolding, following
Harry's return from Voldemort's clutches, Dumbledore's kindly demeanor
changes completely, and Harry sees for the first time, the Dumbledore that
frightens the members of the Dark Side.  About time, I say!

Perhaps Dumbledore's laissez-faire attitude toward Harry is necessary to the
plot -- Harry is developing his powers, and his self-reliance.  But I don't
see Dumbledore as a tower of strength, or an all-knowing mentor.  Rather, he
is a witness to the battle of good & evil, a general marshalling his forces
the best way he can; a powerful wizard, with scruples, going up against an
equally powerful wizard without scruples.  He may end up dead, or he may end
up like Gandalf at the end of "Lord of the Rings" -- I can see Harry and
Dumbledore "sailing away" from the everyday world at the end of the series,
both too weary and depleted to participate in a normal life anymore.

Even Merlin wasn't all-powerful... he made mistakes, he got captured, King
Arthur was lost, Camelot was lost...

[Better stop before I get TOO depressed...}

SM Lunatic



-----Original Message-----
From: bob.mornington at wanadoo.fr [mailto:bob.mornington at wanadoo.fr]
Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2001 9:07 AM
To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HPforGrownups] Can we believe in Dumbledore?


I've been having some doubts recently about Dumbledore, and I wondered
what you all feel about this:

It's just that I don't believe that Dumbledore is an entirely credible
character.
Are we to believe that he is the father, the son and the holy ghost
all rolled up into one benevolent grandfather figure dispensing
incessant pearls of wisdom to who so ever is willing to listen?