Acceptable Abuses?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 96244

> Carol adds:
 Maybe DD belongs to something like the Rousseau school of
 child-rearing--Rousseau thought that cold baths would 
accustom a child to enduring hardship. IOW, in DD's view, Harry 
*had* to sufferdeprivation (of love and comfort) to be tough 
enough to play his part in the battle to come. <

Or maybe he was telling, for once, the simple truth. Privet Drive 
was the only place where Harry would be safe. It's the bizarre 
nature of Harry's enemy that keeps us from appreciating the 
situation Dumbledore was in. One of my own children was born 
extremely premature, a life-threatening condition  for which the 
only treatments were isolating, hazardous,  painful and likely to 
leave emotional scars. 

The fact that I wasn't going to be the one living in pain or dying 
peacefully was irrelevant--I still had to make the choice for my 
child. All anyone can do in such a situation is choose the way 
you hope someone would choose for you. I think that's what 
Dumbledore did.

Sirius knew where Harry was going, (at least, he knew where to 
find him twelve years later), and he agreed, however reluctantly. 
And if he made the decision distraught, and guilt-stricken and 
under pressure from authority, well, that's the way it usually is 
when your child's life is at stake.

If Harry had  to be left with  the Dursleys to save him from cancer, 
rather than Voldemort, would we be searching for ulterior 
motives?

Pippin