Dumbledore's judgement(Was Re: Snape mentioning Peter)

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 34458

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., mrgrrrargh at a... wrote:

> The thing is, Dumbledore has been wrong in his choices of faculty
before. 
> Look at Lockhart. His resume was good, but he had done NOTHING.
Dumbledore 
> hired him none the less 

Well, we're told that Lockhart was the only available candidate that
year, so Dumbledore was kind of stuck.  We also don't know how that
Dumbledore has total control over the hiring of teachers.  He's the
headmaster, yes, but we know there's a board of directors who have the
power to remove him, to put Dementors on the grounds against his will,
etc.  Lockhart was a glamorous celebrity -- it's possible that the
board insisted on his hiring over Dumbledore's protests.  

Also, Dumbledore never expressed any special confidence either in
Lockhart's loyalty or in his ability.  OTOH, he has made a point of
expressing such confidence in Snape.  And snape has been teaching at
Hogwarts for years, possibly for over a decade, so for Dumbledore to
remain blind to his true loyalty, he'd have to cross the line from
ordinary human fallibility to utter idiocy.  I'm willing to believe
that Dumbledore makes mistakes, even fairly serious ones (he didn't
catch on to Peter's traitorousness all those years ago, either), but I
don't think he's capable of a blunder that big.

> Then he hired Crouch-as-Moody, also 
> someone who put students in serious jeopardy -- killing one of them.

I suspect he hired Moody before Crouch began his impersonation. 
Failing to spot the impostor *was* a major lapse on his part, though. 
I'm inclined to see this as a sign of Crouch's brilliant cunning
rather than Dumbledore's stupidity, but that's just my own personal
reaction based on emotional investment and wishful thinking.

> 
> Dumbledore also keeps Treelawney in his employ, and she seems to be
a fraud.

Not a total fraud, apparently -- we've seen her make one accurate
prediction, and we've been told of one other.  Divination appears to
be a very rare talent, so maybe Trelawney is, like Lockhart, the only
available candidate.  (I don't know why Hogwarts has a Divination
class at all -- it doesn't appear to be a teachable skill.)

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com