What Did Dumbledore Know And When Did He Know It?

[Joywitch M. Curmudgeon]

No: HPFGUIDX 27757

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Cindy C." <cynthiaanncoe at h...> wrote:
> The more I think about Dumbledore's behavior, the stranger it 
seems.  
> He is supposed to be a wise and powerful wizard, right?  But if you 
> consider the number of times he is fooled by someone or something, 
it 
> starts to add up.
> 
> He was fooled into leaving for London.

Being wise and powerful doesn't mean that you're infallible.  Besides 
which, he realized pretty quickly that he had been fooled.

> He was fooled (perhaps) about Lockhart's abilities.

I don't think he was fooled by Lockhart -- I challenge you to find 
ANY school ANYWHERE without a few bad teachers.  Lockhart was the 
ONLY applicant, remember.  Besides which, Dumbledore has to answer to 
the Board of Governors.  What's he going to say to them? "The 
students won't be learning DADA this year because I suspect that the 
only applicant, Lockhart, who has published dozens of books and is a 
superstar in the wizarding world, is a phony?"

> He was fooled by Crouch's impersonation of Moody.
Well, yes, he was.  But Crouch is clearly a pretty powerful wizard in 
his own right.

> He was fooled by the Goblet of Fire incident.
This is unclear.  It seemed to me that he knew that there was 
something fishy going on and felt that the best strategy would be to 
let it play out.

> He was fooled with the Cup-as-Portkey incident.
Again, Crouch is no slouch (sorry).

> He was fooled (sort of) into letting Crouch's soul get sucked out.
I don't think he was fooled; Fudge is a pretty politically powerful 
guy who doesn't have to check with Dumbledore before he does things.

> He was fooled for years by Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.
You can't expect Dumbledore to keep track of all the mischief his 
students get up to.  Besides which, he sounds sort of proud of them 
for accomplishing so much behind his back.

I think you are misinterpreting JKR's depiction of Dumbledore as a 
very powerful wizard.  He is just that -- very powerful, but he is 
not some sort of all-seeing, all-powerful deity.  He is mortal, he is 
constrained by political realities and human fallibility, he is not 
universally loved or believed.  Of course he is going to be fooled 
sometimes.  Of course he is not going to win all the battles.  He is 
still the best wizard around.  Not perfect -- but better than all the 
others and the best we've got.

--Joywitch