Acceptable Abuses?

[kyntor70]

No: HPFGUIDX 95899

karenoc1 wrote:

"I don't understand about this one Dumbledore incongruity (I 
apologize if this has been previously discussed!).  I'm wondering why 
Dumbledore allows his students to be abused at all, and I guess I'm 
thinking specifically about Snape.

We know, of course, that Dumbledore was angered about 
Umbridge "manhandling" Marietta Edgecombe.  And we suspect that he 
would have been greatly angered if he knew about Harry (and Lee 
Jordan, I think) suffering physical abuse in detention with 
Umbridge.  But where does Dumbledore stand on emotional abuse?"

Kyntor replies:

In OotP, we see that the instances with Severus Snape is not the only 
instances where Dumbledore allows abuse to happen to a child.

~~~~~~~~~~

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, American Version, p. 835

Harry glared at him for a moment, then flung himself back into the 
chair opposite Dumbledore and waited.  Dumbledore stared for a moment 
at the sunlit grounds outside the window, then looked back at Harry 
and said, "Five years ago you arrived at Hogwarts, Harry, safe and 
whole, as I had planned and intended.  Well -- not quite whole.  You 
had suffered.  I knew you would when I left you on your aunt and 
uncle's doorstep.  I knew I was condemning you to ten dark and 
difficult years."

~~~~~~~~~~

This paragraph really horrified me.  Not just because Dumbledore left 
Harry in a place where he would be abused, but also because he 
abandoned Harry there.  He could have at the very least visited Harry 
occaisionally to let him know that there was someone in the world who 
actually cared about him and didn't think he was a freak, nuisance, 
burden, etc.  I might be able to accept the fact that Harry had to 
live with the Dursleys in order to be safe, but I do find it very 
hard to believe that there was not some way that Dumbledore could 
have prevented them from abusing Harry.

Personally, I believe that the reason Dumbledore allows things like 
this to happen is that he has faced dark wizards too long.  He has 
had to look at the big picture for such a long time that he has grown 
a little callous to the suffering of the individual.

Dumbledore uses the fact that only Harry can defeat Voldemort as the  
ultimate justification for allowing Harry to be abused, but is he 
really justified?  Can child abuse ever really be justified?

Dumbledore's actions raises a lot of questions (at least to me).  I 
am very anxious to see how JKR portrays Dumbledore in her remaining 
two books.  Will Dumbledore be the loving grandfather, the 
manipulative chess master, or maybe his dichotomy will continue and 
he will be a little bit of both?

Kyntor