Dumbledore as Order Founder (was: Warning Ron is Dumbledore post!)

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 120708


Patrick wrote:
Allow me to examine it as a reader. What does JKR gain from misleading
us about the origins of OOtP? Is there a mystery to solve? Flamel was
an off page character, never speaking directly for us to read. So why
would JKR decide five books later to tell us more about him and expand
the story of the OOtP?

vmonte responds:
I think there is a mystery to solve, and JKR likes to mislead her 
audience. How many cases of mistaken identity have there been in the 
series? People are never what they seem. Snape is a bad guy in SS/PS, 
but he turns out to be on the good side. Harry believes that Snape is 
harassing Quirrell, and it later turns out that Quirrell is bad. JKR 
introduces us to polyjuice in CoS (by having Harry and Ron 
impersonate Crabbe and Goyle) and later, Crouch Jr. uses it to 
impersonate Moody. Tom Riddle, school hero, is really a bad guy--aka 
Voldemort. Harry thinks he sees his father conjure a patronus in PoA, 
but it's really himself. Harry gets on the Knight bus and introduces 
himself as Neville, and later we learn that Neville (who we think is 
a nobody) might/or could have been another option for Voldemort to 
target. How about Trelawny, is she a fraud or not?

And the printed word is never what it seems. Hermione's books do not 
tell the truth about the house elves. Rita Skeeter does not print the 
truth. Hermione considers Luna's paper to be garbage, yet it may turn 
out to have many truths in it. Tom Riddle's diary does not exactly 
give the truth about the past. And Lockhart never did anything he 
claims in his books.

I'm also very curious about the Salazar and Godric relationship, as 
well as who Grindelwald was. JKR has to tell us who Grindelwald was--
don't you think? You said that it wouldn't make sense for JKR to 
mention Flamel in book one, and then to bring him back five books 
later. Why? She does this kind of stuff all the time. She likes to 
tease her readers with information. She slowly introduces ideas, 
people, and concepts. Then two, three, or four books later, she 
brings up these same ideas and people again.

Just my opinion. And thanks for your comments.

vivian