Pensieves objectivity AND: Dumbledore's integrity (was Prophecy problems)

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 79428

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "bluesqueak" <pipdowns at e...> 
wrote:
<snip> Dumbledore does lie (mainly by misdirection). In the last 
chapter of 
> PS/SS, *before* he gives Harry his 'no lies' promise, he tells 
Harry 
> that preventing Voldemort's return 'will merely take *someone else* 
> who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time ...  
> [my emphasis].
> 
> So, there is a choice. Choice one: Dumbledore is lying by 
> misdirection in PS/SS. He tells Harry that he does not bear the 
> burden of defeating Voldemort, *someone else* can also fight 
> Voldemort and delay if not defeat him. 
> 
> This line is said in what we are told in OOP is Dumbledore's full 
> knowledge of the prophecy. If Dumbledore truly believes that Harry 
> is 'the one' of the prophecy, he's lying when he tells Harry that 
> (by implication) Voldemort can be defeated by continual delay, and 
> you don't have to worry about it.
> 
> Or he is lying directly in OOP. Harry may or may not be 'the one'. 
> Or the fact that the date is repeated twice means that there *are* 
> two people who have the power to vanquish Voldemort. So in PS/SS 
> Dumbledore may have known that there might be *someone else* who 
can 
> fight Voldemort, and eleven year old Harry really could go 
> unworriedly to sleep that night. 
> 
> And a final possibility (for the Dumbledore is the epitome of 
> goodness fans) is that Dumbledore is simply wrong in his 
> interpretation. He's made the best guess he can about the 
prophecy's 
> meaning. But it is only a guess. 
>

Laura:

DD tells Harry in OoP that he did indeed mislead him in PS/SS and 
later, because he wanted to spare Harry the pain that would come with 
knowing the prophecy.  Are you (and Kirstini) suggesting that that 
isn't true?  That DD lied to Harry about why he didn't tell him 
earlier about the prophecy?  What motivation would he have other than 
the one he explained?  Sorry about being slow here-maybe I just hope 
that DD simply miscalculated rather than that he is so Machiavellian. 
It would be exceptionally cruel to tell Harry that he (DD) acted out 
of love for Harry when it isn't the case, and Harry is likely to 
figure that out sooner or later.