Dumbledore's Motives

[Grace Saalsaa]

No: HPFGUIDX 41252

Sorry, I don't know who said this originally - but here's the quote.

What's bothering me is Dumbledore's timing as far as bringing the
>Philosopher's Stone to Hogwarts. Did he know someone was planning on
>stealing it? He probably guessed that the stone could be used to
>revive Voldemort from his weakened state - I mean, what else was it
>really good for (besides the whole near-immortality thing)? But, if
>that's the case, why did he leave it in Gringotts for long? Why
>wasn't it moved to Hogwarts right after Voldemort's defeat, when his
>followers were still floundering about? For that matter, why wasn't
>it just destroyed?

I've been reading the thread on why  Dumbledore waited so long to move the stone, and the answer seemd obvious to me.  It wasn't his stone.  It belonged to Flamel.  In which case, it dos't give him the right to move it at all.  It may just been that it took these 11 eleven years to convince Flamel to move it. Afterall, Flamel had kept it safe for centuries - and now Dumbledore comes along and tells him that its not safe to keep the stone wherever it was that he kept it.  Perhaps the vault that Hagrid removed it from was Flamel's - which wouldn't give Dumbledore the right or ability to open it up.

The stone was fine and safe where it was even after Voldemort's downfall.  Many in the WW thought he was gone for good, and perhaps nothing happened to suggest that the stone was the next thing V would pursue. Perhaps Dumbledore had been trying to persuade Flamel for the past 11 years to destroy the stone and finally convinced him that moving it was the second alternative.  Or, perhaps there was another attempt to get the stone which caused Flamel to consider having it moved just prior to the start of the school year. 

And then too, destroying the stone means the end of life for Flamel.  I'm sure Flamel was used to making looong term plans regarding his affairs.  It might have taken him the eleven years to get his affairs in order and get used to the idea of death. Dumbledore called death the next adventure - but maybe Flamel didn't see it that way.  "Its time for you die.  Hand over the stone."

I don't think Dumbledore sees all that far into the future.  If he did, then he'd know that three eleven year old kids and a traitorous teacher would get past all the security measures to protect the stone in one evening.  He would have known that Rita Skeeter was also a bug.  And it wouldn't have taken him all school year to figure out that Barty Crouch Jr. was Mad Eye Moody.  And he would have figured out a way to prevent Harry name from coming out of the Goblet of Fire.


Grace


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