Oops! Dumbledore did it again

[Susan Atherton]

No: HPFGUIDX 50967

Tom Wall wrote:
If you think about it, from a certain standpoint, Dumbledore is 
really quite a loose cannon - I mean, he hires giants, he hires 
werewolves, he advises contacting the giants, he advises removing the 
dementors from Azkaban, he seems to openly favor Harry and his 
friends (now, we know that Harry and his friends act valiantly, but 
to an outsider... not so clear), he's consorting with a known 
criminal (*we* know that Sirius is innocent, but the WW doesn't... if 
you think about it, it's quite unorthodox), he helped Buckbeak to 
escape, actually defying the MoM, and not only that, but he 
encouraged *students* to defy the MoM by helping Buckbeak AND Sirius 
to escape. He also (knowing that parents probably wouldn't like this) 
announces to everyone at the final banquet of the year that it was 
Voldemort who killed Cedric. 

Me:
I think the fact that Dumbledore has made so many mistakes (I won't list them all here, but Tom's list was great!) is clear to us when we examine the text, but Harry does not see it that way. To Harry, Dumbledore is everything that is good in the world, and he can never be anything else - unlike, say, Sirius or Lupin, who he has seen other sides to. I think this is similar to how young children see their parents as the epitome of goodness and kindness and love; they see them haloed with flame and able to solve any problem. If there is anything going wrong in their life, from school to friends to illness (I mean a cold, not cancer or anything) their mum and dad can make it better again. This is how Harry sees Dumbledore.

However, as JKR has said, the series is growing and maturing with Harry. I think that over time, Harry will begin to see, as we all did when we got to about sixteen or seventeen, that although your parents love you, they aren't superhuman. They aren't perfect. They can't solve every problem, they can't move every mountain, and they can't protect you from every harm. Parents are people, just like you and I, and they make mistakes. I think that Harry may get a bit of a rude awakening to this when Dumbledore makes an error that puts someone's life at risk (well, again - all things considered he's done that multiple times already) - possibly Ron or Hermione? Or even Sirius - after all, the people Harry loves best are Dumbledore, Ron and Hermione, Sirius, and possibly Mrs Weasley. 

As Sheryl said, I fully believe Dumbledore is good, and does everything with best intent. I just think that Harry needs to remove him from his pedestal slightly, and accept that DD is not perfect - he's just a person, like Harry himself.

Susan
who will cry if Sirius or Lupin die because Dumbledore made a boo-boo
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