Acceptable Abuses?

[kyntor70]

No: HPFGUIDX 96005

Dreadnought wrote:

> The question is, though, who are you to decide that this is what is 
> necessary? Who are you to decide that Dumbledore should not be 
> keeping Harry in the dark?

Kyntor replied:

Actually, it was Dumbledore himself who admitted to Harry in OotP 
that not telling Harry about things sooner was a mistake.

Dreadnaught wrote:

> But imagine yourself in the book - how would you cope if you were 
> in the position of Albus Dumbledore - if you had to deal with the 
> real consequences of the choices you make, in an environment where 
> fear and terror is a normal part of your life. Where you are the 
> only one who has to make the decisions, and you're the one who has 
> to live with the consequences of your decisions.

Kyntor replied:

To be absolutely truthful, Dumbledore is not having to suffer the 
consequences of the choices that he made.  He knew that a child was 
being abused and he did nothing about it.  It wasn't just any child 
either, it was a child that he is responsible for.  It was Dumbledore 
that took Harry to the Dursleys after his parents were killed.  The 
Dursleys didn't want Harry, Dumbledore forced, tricked, or 
manipulated them into taking him.  Because Dumbledore did that, he 
bears some of the responsibility of the abuse Harry endured.  Also, 
Dumbledore is a headmaster of a school.  one of his responibilities 
is to protect his students, and yet he knowingly sends a student home 
every summer to house where he will be abused.  Dumbledore has not 
only betrayed the trust of a child that he is responsible for, but he 
has also betrayed his sacred duty as a headmaster to protect his 
students.  Dumbledore has yet to face any consequences of those 
choices.  This is very harsh, I know, but it is true.

As much as I would like to go off on some giant conspiracy theory 
where Dumbledore wanted Harry to be abused so that he would be really 
easy to manipulate.  I really don't believe that is true.  I think 
that Dumbledore does care for Harry, but I do believe that he has 
made some horrible mistakes.  I still don't buy that just because 
Harry had to live with the Dursley's, he had to be abused.  I do 
believe that Dumbledore could have stopped the abuse if he would have 
made the effort.  His horrible mistake was the fact that he never 
made the effort.  Dumbledore could have transfigured Petunia and 
Vernon into pigs for about 10 minutes and then transfigured them 
back.  After the Dursleys stopped screaming he could have simply 
said, "The next time you abuse or neglect Harry, I am having bacon."  
That would have probably of been the end of the abuse.

Dumbledore's mishandling of Harry could have had dire consequences 
for the wizarding world.  JKR has only shown us one other instance of 
child abuse in her story, and that was Tom Morvolo Riddle, Jr.  
Just imagine what could of happened if Harry would have turned out 
filled with hate against the world that let him suffer and eager for 
revenge.

A lot of our questions will be answered in books 6 and 7.  Will 
Dumbledore continue to keep things from Harry and try to manipulate 
him, or will he learn from his mistakes and actually begin to prepare 
Harry to face Voldemort?

I can't wait to find the answers.  Whether I am right or wrong, I am 
sure that it will be a fun ride.  Going back and forth with these 
discussion are fun, but we are really just amusing ourselves.  We are 
not solving any riddles, instead we are all speculating about the 
writings of a woman who prides herself on being unpredictable.  We 
will probably find out in book 7 that everything bad that has 
happened is really Dobby's fault. :)

Kyntor