Pensieves objectivity AND: Dumbledore's integrity

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 79661

>>"kiricat2001" <Zarleycat at a... wrote:
If keeping Sirius locked up in that house was Dumbledore's idea of a 
great way for Sirius to be able to live, really live, then 
Dumbledore's not being either Macchiavellian or fatherly - he's 
being sadistic.  The only way to give Sirius a chance to live was to 
find Pettigrew and bring him to justice.  We heard not a peep about 
that in OoP because everyone was so busy with the prophecy stuff. 
>>

I agree that Sirius, locked up in the childhood home he hated and had 
already fled once successfully, was left with a piss poor excuse for 
a life.  I also think that a) Sirius wanted to help with the order; 
b) he wanted to remain reasonably close to Harry (as opposed to going 
off to Acapulco or wherever the exotic mail birds were originating 
early in GoF) and c) the only real way he could do both was by being 
in residence and in charge of the Black Mansion at Grimmauld Place 
(imagine the Order trying to deal with Kreacher with no Black in 
residence).  I also think Sirius might not have been prepared for the 
impact it had on him until he'd been there a few days and committed 
to the course of, er, inaction.  All things considered then, I think 
Dumbledore didn't have much other choice than to keep stuffing Sirius 
back into the house.

> >"Wanda Sherratt" <wsherratt3338 at r...> wrote: I understand that 
people who didn't want Sirius to die might think that Dumbledore has 
the broadest shoulders so he should carry the heaviest blame, but I 
just don't see it. <snip a bunch of very true stuff>  I think his 
plan was a perfectly good one, and it's not exactly his fault that 
Harry and Sirius thought they knew better and tried something else.  
Their plans didn't work out any better than his, so why is he the 
only one apologizing at the end?  Maybe because he's the only one 
with the guts to admit that he isn't always right and always perfect; 
it would be refreshing to hear something remotely similar coming from 
Harry for a change.
>>

Harry was way beyond apologetic; he was eaten up with guilt, and DD 
pretty deftly rerouted Harry's flagellation to himself instead.  
Sirius is dead; perhaps he is apologetic after all, wherever he is.  
Where I see Dumbledore at fault is where he sees himself at fault:  
for not sharing information, and for failing to remember what 
younger, impatient boys/men are likely to be feeling.  DD takes a lot 
on himself.  He thinks, probably correctly, that he is the one with 
the best chance of coming up with a strategy to wring a victory out 
of this whole mess with Voldemort.  But a good strategist knows his 
resources, his troops, and this is where DD fell short.  His strength 
and his failing may be the same:  lack of motivating passion.  Even 
his love for Harry seems wistful and faded, where a younger man's 
(like Sirius) is dramatic and impulsive.  DD seems absolutely past 
impulses.  He seems past imagining them as well.

>"jwcpgh" <jwcpgh at y...> (Laura) wrote: The thing that's disappointing 
about DD in OoP is his utter lack of understanding of human 
psychology.  That's where he fails, and that's what leads to Harry's 
rescue mission and Sirius's death.  DD has always been shown before 
as someone with a great deal of empathy.  His unstinting support of 
Snape is a good example-he understands the conflicts Snape faces and 
the choices he's made, and he shows it.  He is very clear on what 
motivates people like Lucius and Fudge and he knows how to deal with 
them.  But when it comes to Harry and Sirius in book 5, it all falls 
apart.  He makes exactly the same mistake with both of them-as Harry 
says, people don't like to be locked up.  The cage Harry is in is a 
virual one-it's the ignorance of the situation that DD has forced on 
him.  And as for Sirius, well, we all know how he felt about 
Grimmauld Place.  Maybe DD had sound reasoning behind his decisions 
about how to treat H&S.  But once he put his theory into practice he 
had to see how destructive and counter-productive it was.  The fault 
is his-not Harry's, not Sirius's.
>>

IMO, as regards Harry & Sirius (and even Snape to some degree), 
Dumbledore seems to have forgotten what it is like to be at the mercy 
of ones emotions (or testosterone).  I think it also made it far 
worse for both Harry and Sirius that DD kept so much under his hat; 
if he'd given either of them more information, they might have been 
able to hold tight to some sort of handle on things instead of each 
raging alone in a vacuum.  Even at the end when DD told Harry so so 
much more than he ever had before, I didn't get a sense of sharing.  
It was more like:  here's what you need to know; internalize this and 
you'll feel better.  There is more going on than DD is telling 
anybody.  I think he still has secrets which could turn the whole WW 
upside down.  Sometimes I think he knows things that would absolutely 
relieve the players of their choices; and we all know how important 
choices are.

"msbeadsley"