DD : an appreciation. (Was Re: Snape, A Murderer?)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 95479

> Siriusly Snapey Susan asked Kneasy:
<snip> Did you provide an answer to the question I asked first?  That
is, would DD himself use the Unforgivables?  <snip> *Anybody* care to
weigh in on this one?

Carol responds:
I'm betting you already know what I think on this one. First let me
admit that I agree with Kneasy on one point, that Dumbledore could not
have successfully AK'd Voldemort. Also DD quite definitely wants LV to
think that he (DD) didn't try to kill him because of his principles,
and because he believes that a fate worse than death awaits LV.

*But* I don't think those ideas, however conveniently they worked out
for DD in the DoM, are based on pretense. In other words, I think
Dumbledore really would not use an Unforgiveable Curse. Why? Because
if he, the representative of "good" in the WW, used an Unforgiveable
Curse, he'd be saying that it was acceptable to use the weapons of
evil to fight evil. He'd be no better than Barty Crouch Sr., whom I'm
sure we're supposed to see as not much better than the DEs he so
ruthlessly brought to justice.

To use such a weapon (assuming that it would actually be effective)
would be to do what (for DD) was easy rather than what was right. He
opposes the use of Dementors: "I have long felt the Ministry is wrong
to ally itself with such creatures" (GoF Am. ed. 588). If he opposes
the use of evil creatures, natural allies of Voldemort, it seems
logical that he would oppose the Unforgiveable Curses, the weapons
that Voldemort uses to impose his evil will on others--weapons that
are, from what we've seen, evil in and of themselves. (Can you imagine
Dumbledore, who has never IIRC given so much as a detention, using the
Cruciatus Curse?)

We also have the exchange between McGonagall and Dumbledore in the
very first chapter of the very first book, which I think is intended
to establish from the beginning that DD would never stoop to using
Voldemort's methods:

McGonagall says: 

". . . Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know-Who--oh, all right,
*Voldemort," was frightened of."

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will
never have." 

"Only because you're too--well--*noble* to use them." (Am. ed. 11)

I'm sure there are similar statements in later books, but that's the
one that stands out in my mind. What powers could he be too "noble" to
use other than the Unforgiveable Curses? 

Or how about a short answer that can't be misinterpreted. Do I believe
that Dumbledore would use the Unforgiveable Curses, for any reason,
under any circumstances? No, I don't.

Carol, hoping we agree on this