[HPforGrownups] Dumbledore's mistakes

[T.M. Sommers]

No: HPFGUIDX 75153

Richelle Votaw wrote:
 >
 > 1) Not telling Harry about the prophecy to begin with.  A
 > mistake?  Maybe.  May also have been a mistake to tell an
 > eleven year old (in so many words) he has to save the world.
 > No win situation on that one.

Telling him would have, among other things, played right into 
Voldemort's plans by making Harry curious about the prophecy (if 
he was only told of its existence) and tempting him to go after 
it, or by risking Voldemort extracting it from Harry's mind (if 
he was told the content).

 > 3) Seemingly not noticing (or not doing anything about it)
 > that Sirius was rapidly deteriorating while basically kept
 > caged.

Since when is that Dumbledore's responsibility?  Sirius is a big 
boy, and should be able to look after himself.  It is not 
Dumbledore's job to keep everybody amused.