JKR Chat "The Crucial and Central Question"

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 92320

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" <susiequsie23 at s...> 
wrote:
> 
> What I *don't* get in your argument is how much you seem to be 
> blaming Dumbledore for this.  How is DD to blame?  How is he 
> *orchestrating* Harry's future?  If Harry is Voldy's target...if the 
> prophecy is to believed--that Harry & Voldy much face each other 
> down at some point--then how is **Dumbledore** behind all this w/ 
> some master plan?  If "it's all decided", it's been decided not *by* 
> DD but by some larger "fates" or whatever.  
> 
> **Unless** you're saying that DD isn't just arranging those things 
> which will train & prepare Harry in the way he [DD] thinks will best 
> help Harry, but that he's actually **in control** of what will 
> happen?  That he knows how it all will end because he's arranged it 
> all?  Is that what you're saying?  If it is, I don't agree.  If it's 
> not, then I think you need to cut DD some slack.  In short, why is 
> the fact that Harry has to face a nasty future DD's doing or DD's 
> fault?  
> 

Blaming Dumbledore? Really? Just because I consider him to be a
cunning, devious, conniving, cold-hearted fixer doesn't mean that 
I blame him. Quite the contrary. Wars aren't won by kindly old softies.
I strongly approve of the way he's going about his business and
assuming that I'm right in my presumptions, that he will do what is 
necessary.

In the past I've leveled all sorts of 'accusations' at him; that he stood
aside at GH, more or less abandoning James and Lily so that the terms
of the Prophecy would be fulfilled being among them. But I don't
*blame* him for doing so. It was a necessary step in the formation of
Weapon!Harry. So although I speculate that he has been up to all sorts
of shenanagins and suspect even more I never call him evil or wicked.
I don't think he's anything of the sort; pragmatic with Machiavellian 
overtones is about how I'd  describe him.

So my contention that he's manipulating Harry's mind and actions is
to  be  expected from him. Maybe I haven't organised myself on this
thread well enough to make my point. It's the right thing to do and
IMO it has been wholly deliberate, one of the more visible facets of
his plan, whatever that is. But this being the case I  can't logically
agree with the idea that Harry has choices springing up around him
and that his actions are of his own volition. He doesn't and they aren't,
otherwise I'm contradicting myself. 
And DD will sacrifice Harry if it becomes necessary - which is more
important, Harry or the WW? No problem with that answer. DD has 
been fighting Voldy since before Harry was born, he knows the struggle
is about much more than Harry (though I sometimes have doubts about
whether some of the fans do). There's a possibility that JKR is trying to 
tell us this every time she hints that Harry may not survive - the battle
between good and evil can be influenced by an individual, but it's
bigger than any individual. I like to  think that that's the way DD sees
it too. He'd be a poor leader  if he didn't.

And no, I don't think he's *arranged* the ending, but I wouldn't be 
surprised if he doesn't already *know* the ending, or perhaps the
optimal way to achieve it. But to get there he has to make certain the
right pieces are more or less in the right places and that's what he's 
up to. Harry is one the pieces and he has to be in the right position
before he can be effective, whether he wants it or not. 

Kneasy