Who is the adult (Was: Who's to blame for Occlumency?)

[boyd_smythe]

No: HPFGUIDX 100705

> Ally:
> b) (snip) Maybe DD thought this would be a way to help Snape and 
Harry come to some kind of agreement or meeting of the minds?  Given 
the importance he places on everyone trusting each other and since 
Harry and Snape are the two clearest examples of Order members who 
don't - and fairly important members, at that - it seems likely that 
he might have tried to push them together and hoped that by seeing 
into each other's minds that they might come to a better
understanding of one another . . . which seemed to be happening a bit 
before that whole pensieve fiasco. < (more snip)

Boyd:

Very MD-ish (Magic Dishwasherish) of you, which I like! But I happen 
to follow the more JKR-centric view of things, in which it is not DD 
who is arranging these things with his sometime brilliance, but JKR 
for the simple reason that it helps move the character development 
and/or plot. Perhaps that's a bit Garbage Scowish of me, but I'm
still waiting for the plotting grandeur of DD to be unleashed upon us.

However, your analysis of why DD would have wanted to do this ("he 
might have tried to push them together and hoped that by seeing into 
each other's minds that they might come to a better understanding of 
one another") meshes quite well with mine as to why JKR needed to do 
this. I posit that both Harry and us, the readers, needed to develop 
some sympathy for Snape before book 6 (when I expect Harry will very 
reluctantly need Snape's help). Thus the Occlumency lessons.

Plus that makes them a bit nastier and tougher on our increasingly 
set-upon hero. She's certainly pushing him toward something!

Boyd
Who returns after a long absence from the fold.