[HPforGrownups] Dumbledore's death needs a little bang in it ?

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 39634

Aldrea:

> Cindy:
> > When Dumbledore goes out, he has to go down *swinging* and everyone 
> > has to be right there watching but unable to help. Ideally, he'll 
> > save a few people on his way out, preferably Harry. Any cliche at 
> > all for Dumbledore's death is fine by me. He can be diffusing a 
> > bomb and can accidently cut the *red* wire, if you like. Just so 
> > long as Dumbledore makes an enormous *Bang* when he dies, I'll be 
> > satisfied.
> 
> I have a hard time seeing Dumbledore going down guns ablazing and 
> such.  I just don't grasp how it can be set up reasonably.  
> Dumbledore is very very wise, he also has a healthy distrust of 
> Voldemort, plus spies and a way of knowing what people are doing.  I 
> just don't see him getting killed in such a dramatic way unless 
> something induces him to show up on Voldemort's front doorstep 
> nancing about with a bullseye on his forehead. 

I think it can be set up OK. We must remember that Dumbledore is more than 
that supremely wise, elder statesman of a wizard that we see in the books. 
Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald. He has no hestitation in being the first 
through the door to confront Crouch/Moody. He is scarred (albeit in the most 
useful way, should he ever need to use the underground) and has a crooked 
nose, both of which I take to be indicators of a more active past (although 
they could be innocent Quidditch injuries). Dumbledore, in fact, has Edge. (I 
know you weren't denying any of that, but I just wanted to emphasise the fact 
that we know Dumbledore to have been a man of action, not just a wise leader.)

I have no problem with the idea that Dumbledore, once he feels that he has 
passed on his mantle, or at least the potential to wear his mantle, to Harry 
and that he can do no more for him in terms of passing on his wisdom, just 
might act in what appears to be reckless way; might either deliberately 
sacrifice himself (whether wearing a target on his forehead or not ;-) ), or 
put himself wittingly into a situation which he knows he may not survive. As 
Cindy pointed out, the constant harping on Dumbledore's aging would only 
serve to make his non-survival of such an encounter more believable. Bang 
*with* pathos and irony as we (and he) know he can't survive, yet he forges 
ahead nonetheless.

He is not afraid of the next great adventure and I suspect that his promise 
never truly to leave Hogwarts until no-one loyal to him remains is one that 
that he intends to go beyond his death. These facts, combined with the fact 
that he is such a great and powerful wizard and the only one whom Voldemort 
fears encourage me to think that he will be in the forefront of the battle, 
putting himself at considerable risk.

That's if Hagrid doesn't do it first (and you know that my pet theory is that 
Hagrid will  unintentionally be the cause of his demise) - which would be 
another ironic Bang.

Eloise
Who finds herself draped in a FEATHERBOA more and more frequently these days.




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