OOP Dumbledore

[jsmithqwert]

No: HPFGUIDX 65124

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "susanbones2003" <rdas at f...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Melinda Leydon 
> <melindaleo at m...> wrote:
> > Shef said:  Dumbledore was the LAST person Harry needed to see at 
> that
> > point. He 
> > really, really, really needed Mrs. Weasley. He needed someone to 
> hold
> > him and comfort him and let him grieve. Instead he gets locked in
> > Dumbledore's office and told that it's OK to feel what he's 
feeling,
> > but please, calm down so I can tell you about this prophecy. Oh, 
and
> > by the way, I know you just lost the most important person in your
> > life and everything, but always remember that House-Elves should 
be
> > treated with respect.
> > 
> > ME:
> > 
> > YES!!!  I thought this too!  You've avoided telling him all this 
> time (when
> > you should have just told him at the beginning of this school 
year 
> after the
> > Dementor attack) and instead drop it on him when he is at his most
> > vulnerable!  I was like, "what the. . . .
> > 
> > I didn't like Dumbledore much in this one either.
> <SNIP>
> > Melinda
> 
> ME:
> I, too found the "usual" wrap-up with Dumbledore to be very forced, 
> odd and out of sync with what Harry needed and was feeling. All I 
can 
> account for it is the urgency with which Dumbledore felt he needed 
to 
> act. (This book shows me Dumbledore's fallibility unlike any of the 
> previous books)He'd waited too long and to wait another minute 
would 
> be to endanger Harry further, something that he finally realizes 
he's 
> been doing inadvertantly and can no longer risk. I am sure the 
point 
> at which Voldemort possessed Harry and Harry cries out (in his 
> mind???) for Dumbledore to kill him, I am sure that must have 
shaken 
> the headmaster to his roots. It still shakes me up. 
> JenD

As far as I am concerned, I think that Mrs. Weasley or any other 
sympathetic "please cry on my shoulder" person would be precisely 
wrong for Harry immediately after the incident.  The reaction of 
others immediately after a highly emotional/traumatic event greatly 
impact our impression of that event.  Not only does Harry need to 
understand what has happened, as understanding is the key to 
acceptance, but he also must learn to face tragedy and trauma without 
falling apart.

Harry, as an individual, faces a lot.   Dumbledore himself admits 
that Harry has had a more difficult time in school than any other 
student that has ever come to Hogwarts.  Whats more, if the world is, 
in the long term, to continue to exist in relative peace and 
stability, Harry must succeed in "vanquishing" Voldemort.  Only an 
emotionally strong, resolute, and relatively stoic person will be 
able to endure the truly difficult road ahead.

Dumbledore cares deeply for Harry and understands children well.  
Harry must develop secure and even emotions if he is to succeed.  
Dumbledore knows this and, therefore, allowing Harry to wallow in his 
own misery would not only have been counterproductive to Harry's 
development, but also would have endangered all of Voldemort's 
potential future victims.

One of Harry's key developmental issues, as Dumbledore admits, is 
that adults "baby" him.  They must allow him to grow into manhood and 
must allow him the responsibility that fate has dictated.  Failure to 
tell Harry the truth has already brought him close to disaster.  What 
he needs is a little "tough love," which not only would teach him to 
deal with his own problems rather than dumping them on the world, but 
would also help him reign in his overwrought emotionalism.

Voldemort has been playing on Harry's childish emotional state all 
year, the last thing that Dumbledore can do now is to allow Harry to 
continue in that state.  I think that isolating Harry and forcing him 
to deal with his emotions was the most effective method of dealing 
with the problem.  Was it cold-hearted? Of course it was, but it was 
also necessary, and I am confident that, given their current 
development in the story, none of the other characters would have 
taken that appropriate attitude with Harry.  He doesn't need a 
friend . . . he has already got pleanty of those.  What he needs is a 
mentor, and I belive that that is the position that J. K. Rowling is 
putting Dumbledore in.