Adults "failing" Harry (was: Themes in OotP)

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 120004



> Betsy:
> Hopefully I've shown why I think the actions of the adults around 
> Harry were believable, maybe even a little bit understandable.  Of 
> course, Dumbledore was wrong.  He underestimated Harry's maturity and 
> his ability to handle joining the war against Voldemort.  But I can 
> see why Dumbledore made this mistake.  He loves Harry.  I imagine it 
> would be hard to recognize exactly when the child you love is ready 
> to pick up a sword and walk onto the battle field.  And I imagine 
> you'd try and delay that time for a long as you possibly could.  So I 
> don't think this was a ham-handed attempt on Jo's part to 
> unnecessarily complicate OotP, but actually a natural outgrowth on 
> the part of the characters. 

Finwitch:

Hmm-mm. Fore-warning is equipment. Just like Sirius considered about
the DA-club. The thing is - they ARE at war. Everyone IS involved,
aware or not. Those who *know* what's going on are better equipped to
deal with it and to survive. The decision of not telling the kids
anything simply proves to me that these wizards truly aren't much for
logic.

And Harry in particular *was* involved since before his birth, HAS
faced Voldemort more times than the adults, so er - keeping Harry in
the dark was just stupid. No one ever told him that V might feed him
false visions - just that he knew of the connection and that was
somehow dangerous... of course, it's easy to say that when I'm just
reading the book...

And what comes to Harry's emotional health - yes, Sirius is the one
who should keep that as the godfather - he tries, but after 12 years
with Dementors, short break and back in the house that created some of
 the memories he was more or less forced to dwell in for 12 years -
he's not in much of a healthy emotional state himself.

According to Dumbledore's interpretation of Trelawney's the first
prophecy, Harry IS the one able to defeat Voldemort. Therefore, the
future of both WW and MW rests upon Harry. That means that HARRY is
important. This includes not just physical safety (which Dumbledore
haven't been able to provide at Hogwarts) but emotional as well. After
all, if Harry's emotional state goes down enough, he might not fight
at all, but just be quiet and wait to die - or be more active and
commit suicide. And what would that mean to Dumbledore's plans?

Finwitch