Why Defensive tactics work: was MAGIC DISHWASHER

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 47209

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Grey Wolf" <greywolf1 at j...> wrote:

> Pippin:
> > one ought to admit that defeat is at least as much 
> > a possibility under Dishwasher as it is without it. 

GW:
> No it is not. Under MD, we asume that, if Dumbledore sits 
down and does  nothing, Voldemort wins for sure, while if he 
works hard and baits him, Dumbledore's side has at least a 
possibility of winning. There is no  other theory apart from MD 
anyway, so there is no "without it" to 
> compare it to. People who are against MD have yet to come up 
with a  theory that explains what is Dumbledore doing about 
Voldemort that does  not include "sit and hope it all comes out 
for the best". 
> 
> 
> Pippin:
> > Dumbledore is, after all, not "doing nothing" . He is training 
the  next generation to resist evil, he is working tirelessly to 
> > encourage people to unite and to forgive their differences 
and he is doing everything in his power to alert people to the 
danger, including sending his spy out to discover what 
Voldemort plans to do next.

GW
> Yes, he is educating the next generation, true, but Voldemort is 
not a  problem of the next generation: it is a problem that got out 
of hand of the previous one, and Dumbledore is too efficient to 
allow Voldemort's problem to carry on to the next generation. 
Especially since there  might not be time for the next generation 
to grow anyway, or he might  as well be the last powerful enough 
to stop Voldemort before he wins.
> 
> Also, information about the enemy movements is useless if 
you don't do  anything without it. Let me put it this way: 
Dumbledore discovers that 
> Voldemort is going to come back because there are any 
number of ways  for him to recorporate. Now what? Sits and 
waits? Allows him to choose the battlefield and the weapons 
and hope that when the time comes he  will be powerful 
enough? Or some other option, that takes advantage of 
 Voldemort's position. This is where MD kicks in, of course: he 
plans  the best possible way to win him, baits the trap, and 
attracts him. And  everything that has happened in the books so 
far falls into place.
> 

 Voldemort and his devices have been thwarted in quite a 
number of ways. Let's recap:

1) a mother's love
2) A  spell of protection involving Harry's blood relatives
3) Removing the stone from Gringotts
4) Two first year students armed only with a rudimentary 
levitation spell
5) A clumsy eleven year old girl (Hermione knocking into Quirrell)
6) Snape's constant vigilance (shadowing Harry all through Book 
One)
7) A mother's love (reprise)
8) Destroying the stone
9) An eleven year old girl with a silly crush (Ginny, stealing back 
the Diary before it could possess Harry)
10) A song bird and an old Hat
11) Priori incantatem



There were numerous ways for Voldemort to come back, and  
there were numerous ways to defeat him. Even the recreation of 
the PS would not make Voldemort invulnerable. The stone could 
still be destroyed.  That's canon. 

 It is also canon that Albus Dumbledore does not believe his 
death would keep him from defending Harry  or Hogwarts.  "to 
have been loved so deeply, even though the one who loved us is 
gone, will give us some protection *forever*".  Does anyone think 
that Albus doesn't deeply love Hogwarts or Harry? 

Nor does Dumbledore believe that Hogwarts would be 
defenseless without him ("Help will *always* be given at 
Hogwarts to those who ask for it"). How many times have the 
dead come to Harry's aid? We have to get over the notion of 
death as the end of everything if we're going to understand how 
the Potterverse works. 

We also know what *didn't* work last time Voldemort was in 
power. Despite Crouch's aggressive anti-Dark Arts campaign, 
Voldemort grew stronger year by year.  The books suggest a 
reasons why this happened. 

We can  see a pattern in the list of  defeats. Voldemort's strategic 
weakness is over-extension. He always bites off more than he 
can chew. This must be why Voldemort was winning against 
Crouch's aggressive anti-Dark Arts measures.  Crouch's 
aggressive moves forced Voldemort to consolidate his victories, 
look before he leapt, etc. 

Left to his own devices, Voldemort  *will* overreach. That's not 
meta-thinking, it's an analysis that's as available to Dumbledore 
as it is to the reader.  Defensive tactics make sense in that 
situation. Provided Dumbledore's side is willing to make the 
necessary sacrifices, Voldemort's assault on the wizarding world 
is as doomed as Napoleon's march into Russia.

What  Dumbledore has to do is  protect the wizarding world as 
best he can until Voldemort himself provides a weakness he can 
exploit. As for the role of spies, careful observation of the enemy 
is of course necessary in order to strengthen the defense and to  
reveal any tactical weaknesses which can be exploited once 
battle is joined.

Pippin