TBAY: Failure, Dumbledore, Death and Hagrid vs. Lupin

[abigailnus]

No: HPFGUIDX 54564


After some deliberations, the impromptu slumber party in Melody's room has decided to move to the Royal George.  Captain Cindy was originally dead set against the move, insisting that she was quite comfortable on the large portion she had staked out on Melody's soft, four-poster bed, but the ensuing argument was cut short by some low rumblings from further down the hall.  Once Melody identified them as the nocturnal growling of Grey Wolf, and added the observation that Grey really valued his beauty sleep, the decision to switch venue was unanimously and enthusiastically approved.

Abigail and Derannimer have hung back from the main group, where Melody, who retrieved her sword from under the stairs before leaving, is now debating its merits in comparison to Captain Cindy's Big Paddle.  From yet another one of her bottomless pockets, Abigail has produced yet another bag of marshmallows, which Derannimer is munching on half-heartedly.

"It's really not the same if they're not toasted."  She complains.  "Anyway, what was I saying?  Oh yeah, I can't believe you thought I wanted Harry to fail out of a desire for Hurt-Comfort. I don't crush on Harry! I'm a Bent SnapeFan!"

Abigail glances surreptitiously ahead, but Cindy is busy displaying the Big Paddle's strength by using it to fell small trees.  "Actually, so am I."  She admits sheepishly.  "But you have to admit that some of the failure scenarios that were being considered before I showed up had a distinct whiff of Hurt-Comfort.  Harry just fails to save someone's life.  Harry arrives too late to save someone's life but not too late to watch that person being tortured/writhing in the final throes of a painful death.  Just imagine Harry's pain!  Consider how hard that would hit him!"

"I had nothing to do with those suggestions."  Derannimer responds huffily.  "As you would know if you could hear well enough to tell the difference between the words 'emotion' and 'shlock'."

"Yeah, I'm not quite sure how I made that mistake."  Says Abigail.  "After all, you were the one who originally argued against Cindy's Dead!Hermione theory.  Must have been all that snoring.  But what were you saying about the real reason that you want Harry to fail?"

"Well," Derannimer begins, "I want Harry to fail for the same reason I want Dumbledore to make a stupid mistake, and not be Omniscient!Dumbledore. For the same reason I want Voldemort to be occasionally half-way competent. And it's not because I'm a Death Eater.   I want the fight against Voldemort to be *hard.* And I want the good guys to be fallible. I *hate* it when the good guys never do anything wrong or stupid. It's so *simplistic.*"

"I agree"  Abigail nods.  "But are you sure that's what's happening in the books?  Because it seems to me that the good guys have screwed up well and royally more then once over the last 15 years.  First, there's Sirius 'why don't you be the Secret Keeper, Peter?' Black, who is not a little bit responsible for the Potters' deaths."

"That wasn't Sirius' fault!"  Derannimer insists.  "Peter tricked him!"

"We're talking about failure, aren't we?"  Abigail responds.  "I'd call not realizing that your best friend turned traitor more then a year ago a pretty big failure.  And Lupin and Dumbledore share the blame for it.  Moving ahead to Harry's days.  We've got Sirius, Lupin and Snape, falling over each other to see who can screw up the situation the worst in PoA.  If Sirius hadn't behaved so foolishly and come to Dumbledore directly after escaping from Azkaban Scabbers might have been immediately apprehended, and the same thing might have happened if Lupin had come clean and/or delivered the Maurauder's Map to Dumbledore when he found it in Harry's possession.  And who can  tell how differently the Shrieking Shack might have gone down if Snape had been willing to listen to reason?  At best, there would have been another person to detain Peter when Lupin transformed, and something tells me that *Snape* wouldn't have forgotten about Lupin's not having taken his potion."

"You're making all these arguments under the assumption that MD is untrue."  Derannimer notes.

"Well, of course..."  Abigail begins loudly, and then notices that Derannimer is gesturing urgently towards the group ahead of them.  Melody has her MDDT sword out.  It glints in the moonlight, and makes a silvery sound as it cuts through the air.  Abigail lowers her voice.  "Of course I am, but even if we were to ignore the SS as a prime example of failure on the part of all three men, as well as the supposedly omniscient Dumbledore, there's just no excusing what happens after it.  Not even MD argues that Snape's revelation of Lupin's being a werewolf is part of Dumbledore's overreaching plan - and am I the only one wondering if we're going to see any remorse about that move on Snape's part in the future?"

"You think Snape will care that he hurt Lupin?"  Derannimer asks, incredulous.  "I may be a Bent Snape!Fan, but even I'm not that delusional."

"Neither am I."  Abigail agrees, smiling.  "But I do believe that Snape cares about his students.  Getting Lupin fired opened up the DADA slot, which brings us to the supposedly infallible Dumbledore's most recent, most glorious, screw-up."

"Moody."  Derannimer intones.

"Moody."  Abigail repeats.  "Alastor Moody.  Dumbledore's good friend Alastor 'he's drinking from a hip flask so it must be the right guy' Moody.  The man Dumbledore brought in because he was so worried that something big was going to go down with Voldemort, and wanted his students protected by the best man there was.  Your *perfect* Dumbledore literally put the fox in charge of the chicken coop.  If he hadn't done this, or if Snape had kept his big mouth shut and not freed up the position in the first place, Voldemort might not be back, and Cedric Diggory might not be dead."  Abigail shakes her head in disgust.  "Still think the good guys have it too easy?"  

For a few minutes, Abigail and Derannimer walk in silence.  They pass the ivy-covered walls of the Canon Museum and the adjacent Canon College.  Halfway across the quad, the group stops.  Up ahead, Melody procures a white silk handkerchief and begins displaying it theatrically to Cindy and the rest of the group.  Abigail and Derannimer move a ways back so as not to disturb.

"I will say this for your 'infallible good guys' world view."  Says Abigail thoughtfully.  "It is the immediate reading.  The narrative never admonishes Sirius or Lupin, at best they do it themselves.  And as for Dumbledore, as far as the narrative is concerned, he walks on water."

"Well, the narrative is from Harry's point of view."  Derannimer points out.  "And his hero worship needs to be shaken up a bit.  Dumbledore needs to fail.  Especially Dumbledore, in my opinion."

Abigail glances at the group huddled around Melody.  Mel has just thrown the handkerchief in the air, and is making swift and precise cuts in the air.  Swish.  Swish.  All eyes are on her.  "Can I tell you a secret?"  Abigail whispers.  "I agree completely.  In fact, I'm beginning to find Dumbledore as he's been presented over the last four books... boring."

Swish.

A deathly silence descends.  Melody's sword lowers, forgotten.  All eyes, including Derannimer's, are on Abigail.  Slowly, and completely unheeded, the fragments of the white silk handkerchief float to the ground.  It takes them quite a while to descend, and no one speaks until they do.  Finally, Captain Cindy steps forward.  Her hands are gripping the Big Paddle so hard that her knuckles have turned white.  She is smiling a very strange smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes.

"Explain."  She says quietly and with obvious effort.

Abigail takes a deep breath.  And another one.  Then she says.  "Do you guys remember the last time I argued against MD?  During the big party in the Pink Flamingo?  Melody and I started talking about Dishwasher!Dumbledore."

"And you called him a liar."  Melody says quietly.  

"That's not *exactly* what I said."  Abigail answers, glancing nervously at the sword in Melody's hand, perhaps not as forgotten as she first assumed.  "I said that D!D presents a very different face to the world than the person he really is.  Dumbledore shows us a bumbling, saintly yet playfully shrewd old man, but D!D is so much more.  He's cunning, and not a little bit vicious.  And do you know what I realized as I described him?"  Abigail's eyes begin to glow.  "I realized that for the very first time, I saw Dumbledore as an interesting character.  And that, I might point out, was the closest I ever came to buying MD as a theory."

"Abigail!"  Cries Derannimer, shocked.  "How could you!"

"Oh, I probably wouldn't have done it in the end."  Abigail says.  "But I was briefly tempted.  Not that it matters.  You guys," she gestures at Melody, "kept insisting on having your cake and eating it too.  No one wanted to talk to me about Morally-Duplicit!Dumbledore, except to deny that he existed.  But the damage was done.  I like Dumbledore as much as the next guy.  I think he's a great mentor and father figure to Harry.  I'm glad that he's always around to restore order whenever Harry's life threatens to get too chaotic.  Certainly I enjoy his comical moments and his gentle disrespect for authority.  But would I follow him into battle?  Hell, no.  Maybe the coming books will prove me wrong.  Certainly Harry's reaction to Dumbledore at the end of GoF suggests that there's more to him than we've seen thus far.  I really hope so.  I don't know how much more of Nitwit-Oddment-Blubber-Tweak!Dumbledore I can take."

This seems to satisfy the group for now, but they insist on splitting Abigail and Derannimer up during the remainder of the walk to the Royal George, as though afraid of more heretical talk bubbling up between the two of them.  George the barman is waiting, bleary-eyed, at the door, and ushers the group into a private room.  There's a roaring fire, very welcome after the brisk TBAY night.  George leaves and quickly returns with a tray of drinks.  Abigail feels rather badly in need on one, and downs a shot of Brandy.

"Getting back to what you were saying before your little... outburst."  Derannimer says delicately.  "You may be right when you say that the good guys as a group have had some major screw-ups, but none of them are by Harry.  And since Harry is the chief good guy--he's the *hero,* for Pete's sake--that means that *he* is going to have to fail. He is going to have to screw up big time."

"Harry may be the hero, but he's not the chief good guy."  Abigail counters.  "Not yet, anyway.  As the MDDT is fond of saying, Harry has no idea that he's a character in a book called 'Harry Potter and...'.  As far as he's concerned, he's an average kid with an above-average allotment of trouble.  He doesn't know, as we, and probably Dumbledore and Voldemort know, that he's destined to win the battle against evil.  He's just getting by as best he can.  What was that you said before about Harry's cycle of failure and success, Pippin?"

Pippin, still lamenting her inability to accept a Smore, returns from her revery.  "Oh?  I said that in every book, Harry begins by perceiving himself as inadequate in some way, and by the end of the book he's conquered this inadequacy.  In the first book it's ignorance, in the second it's his right to consider himself a Gryffindor, in the third, weakness, in the fourth, immaturity."

"That's a really great way of putting it."  Abigail says.  "But what does it tell us about the trials that Harry faces at the end of every book?  Wouldn't it be accurate to say that the preparations that Harry puts himself through during every book, preparations with a rather mundane purpose - being able to play Quidditch, for example - help him survive the ordeal that he faces at the end of the book?  It's these trials that mostly come under fire when people complain that Harry is too perfect, that he succeeds whenever he tries.  But these people miss the fact that usually there's a year's worth of preparations, and not a little bit of failure, behind his final success.  If Harry hadn't forced himself to learn Summoning Spells in order to complete the first TWT task, he would have died in that graveyard, unable to reach the Goblet of Fire.  And that's another thing that people who complain about Harry's track record miss.  All of Harry's ordeals so far have been either/or propositions - failure in each case meant death.  This was not the place for JKR to teach her hero the meaning of failure, as it would have been a short and terminal lesson."

"But that's because Harry isn't trying to get Voldemort."  Objects Derannimer.  "He never has. He's fought back when attacked; but even at the end of GOF, he doesn't really seem to have gone on the *offensive.* And he's going to need to, for the light side to win."

"We know that, but Harry doesn't yet."  Counters Abigail.  "And anyway, I think the post-Graveyard scenes in GoF show us that Harry is deeply committed to the cause.  The way he is with Hagrid, and later on the train with Fred and George, suggests that he believes himself to be Dumbledore's soldier.  He doesn't perceive himself as the champion of the light side, and there's really no reason for him to do so at this point, but if Dumbledore asked him to go on the offensive, Harry would.  Which begs the question of whether Dumbledore will try to get Harry more involved in the fight against Voldemort.  On one hand, it seems unconscionable - Harry's just a kid, he isn't ready.  But on the other hand, if Dumbledore is indeed grooming Harry to save the world, then the boy's got to learn sometime.  Not, mind you, that I think we'll be seeing Dumbledore sending Harry to battle in OotP.  Someone suggested a while back that OotP will be less concerned with the battle with Voldemort, in the same vein as PoA, perhaps dealing with the situation in the MoM.  I think this makes a great deal of sense."

"Well, you would."  Derannimer scoffs.  "You don't think anyone has to die in the coming books."

"When did I say that?"  Cries Abigail, accidentally knocking over a bowl of peanuts.  "How could I possibly have said such a thing?  Why it's absurd!  Not only have there already been deaths in the Potterverse, we have it from JKR herself that there will be at least one 'horrible' death in OotP.  I was objecting to the tendency of some" Abigail carefully avoids Cindy's eye, "theorists' to finish book 5 with about 4 living characters left.  I said that this much death not only negated the emotional impact of any single character death, but it would cause the readers to ignore how horrible death truly is, which is obviously a subject JKR feels strongly about.  And I think Captain Cindy will back me up on this."

"I would?"  Cindy asks doubtfully.

"Would you kindly explain to Derannimer the meaning of the term 'Humpty-Dumptying the Bangs', Captain?"  Abigail says imperiously.

Cindy scowls, but turns patiently enough towards a confused Derannimer.  "It means that excessive Bangs eventually inure the audience to their effects.  You should know this, you know.  What have you been getting up to in the Shipping Wing?" 

"Thank you, Captain."  Says Abigail, smiling at Derannimer's reddening face.  "You see, I accept that people will die, although I happen to disagree with you on how often, and also on who it will be."

"You don't think Dumbledore is going to die?"  Derannimer asks.

"Well, he probably is, but under no circumstances is Dumbledore the OotP death."

"Hagrid, then."

"Exactly.  I don't think Hagrid is going to die at all.  I think it's going to be Lupin."

The entire table breaks out in cries of "Not Lupin!"

"I know, I know."  Abigail sighs.  "I love him too, and so does JKR.  But when you think about it, it's obvious that only one of the two - Hagrid or Lupin - can die.  Think about it, there's a curious duality when it comes to their functions.  They both represent marginalized, discriminated-against minorities - werewolves and giants.  Why two of them?  It can only be because JKR is planning to kill one of them, but still wants to be able to finish the series with a minority group being accepted into wizarding society."

"Why Lupin then?"  Asks Cindy.  "Why not Hagrid, if all we need is a representative of a discriminated minority?"

"For several reasons."  Abigail answers.  "First, unlike Lupin's lycanthropy, no plot-point hinged on the fact that Hagrid is part giant in GoF.  Lupin's being a werewolf is the reason the Peter escaped in PoA and partly the reason that he was suspected of being a traitor 15 years ago.  The fact that Hagrid is a part giant has no such importance, which leads me to believe that it will be the root of a new story arc in OotP and beyond.  Also, Hagrid has quite a lot of growth coming.  He has a girlfriend and may be reunited with his mother.  Are we supposed to believe that all of these plots will be resolved before the end of OotP?  Finally, unlike Lupin, Hagrid's roles haven't been entirely usurped by other characters.  I've already mentioned that Hagrid took over Lupin's role as a minority representative, but at the end of PoA, his role as one of Harry's fathers - the father as guardian and teacher - was usurped by Sirius.  Lupin no longer has a function in the books.  Add to that the fact that he's showing up in OotP and I'm afraid it's bye-bye Remus."

The table was silent for a few minutes while everyone blew their noses and sniffed.

"You're mean."  Melody told Abigail, who was dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.

"Maybe, but I don't think I'm wrong."  Abigail answered sadly.  "Another round?"

Abigail
Who would like to point out that, in the previous three weeks, when I had absolutely nothing to do, there was not one discussion on this group that caught my eye, and certainly none that had me composing a post for two hours.  And now, just as the semester is getting warmed up, so does the group.  Admit it, you guys, you do it on purpose.