Sirius - who is right?

[Fides]

No: HPFGUIDX 73639


> I think that Dumbledore is getting a bad rap here.  Everyone 
> complains that he bungled as far as Sirius goes, that he should have 
> known better, done things differently, etc.  I have to ask, just 
> WHAT was Dumbledore supposed to do?  He states plainly the reason he 
> did what he did: to keep Sirius alive.  And Harry's response, and 
> that of a lot of Sirius fans is basically 'Thanks for nothing.'  
> What would have been the better solution?

I think part of the problem is that Dumbledore is held to a higher 
standard because he is the 'puppetmaster'. He critisizes (probably 
correctly) Sirius' attitude to Kreacher but I think many similarities 
can be drawn between the way the two people trapped in the house are 
treated.

I don't have the book to hand so I can't remember the exact quote but 
Dumbledore tells Harry that

   Give Sirius more
> interesting things to do at GP?  It didn't matter WHAT he was asked 
> to do there, Sirius wanted *out*, and nothing less.  So if he'd been 
> given his way, he could have died in August, before Harry even got 
> to GP - would that have made everyone happy?

Given a choice between Siri being killed doing something useful for the 
order and being locked up in another prison by his friends and dieing a 
bit each day until he finally died knowing he has been used to draw his 
godson into a trap I must admit I would go for the quick death sooner 
and I think Siri would have done as well.

   Let's face it, some
> situations, just like some people (Snape, for instance), can't be 
> fixed.  If the point of the books is about making choices, what 
> happens when the choice isn't between good and bad, but between bad 
> and worse?

That is quite true. I think the objection by the aforementioned Sirius 
fans is that the choice made in this case was 'worse'.

But then it is entirely possible that psycologists are a muggle 
invention so wizards may simply not know how to understand or deal with 
what Sirius was going through.