Snape, Black, and emotional reponses

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 74283

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Nora Renka 
<nrenka at y...> wrote:

> 
> Dumbledore failed to take into account the mental and
> emotional health of two rather fragile human beings. 
> And while each of them exhibited their own failures of
> what might be reasonably expected of them, I'm willing
> to blame Dumbledore as well, in both of their cases. 
> A failure to properly account for emotions is a
> problem with a number of ethical systems, and it
> really reared its head in these cases.

Dumbledore takes responsibility for the failures of his 
subordinates. That's a leader's job. I suppose he has a sign on 
his desk that says "The knut stops here." He should certainly 
never have  had to ask Snape to teach Harry Occlumency. It 
should have been done by Dumbledore himself long before 
Voldemort returned to power.  

Yet I can't help wondering if Dumbledore's failure wasn't a felix 
culpa. If Harry had learned to suppress his emotions as 
Occlumency requires, would he have developed the 'heart' that is 
the power the Dark Lord knows not?

In Snape's case Dumbledore admits to wishful thinking, but  I 
think Dumbledore understood perfectly well that Black was 
emotionally fragile; there just wasn't much he could do about it. 
Sirius wasn't to be put off onto make-work jobs. He wanted real 
responsibilities, and yet it seems he was too unstable to make 
good decisions on his own behalf much less other peoples'.  

It obviously wouldn't have been safe for Black to be treated at St. 
Mungo's even if he would have gone, and Black would never 
have left the country for treatment elsewhere while there was any 
chance that Harry might need him. 

Pippin