Ever so evil ? was Dumbledore's role in Sirius' death

[Ava Gordon]

No: HPFGUIDX 99058

Pippin:
> >  In real life your beloved friends, family and teachers can let 
> you 
> > down. They can, though they honestly care about you and vice 
> > versa, knowingly and deliberately act against your interests. 
And 
> > ironically enough,  because they do value the relationship, they 
> > may do it behind your back. 

       * * *

Ava:  Which is, of course, why Snape is so essential to Harry's 
development.  In his less-than-ideal way, he serves as an anchor to 
reality.  

> Jen: I thought that was the whole point of OOTP, that Harry saw 
all 
> the previous fairy-tale elements of the WW in a new light: His 
once 
> beloved Sirius took a nose-dive long before he fell through the 
> veil; James & Sirius were depicted as bullies; Dumbledore shows 
> signs of weakness and admits he made mistakes; Molly's once 
welcome 
> ministrations were seen as mollycoddling; the MOM & Fudge were 
found 
> to be corrupt and guilty of censorship at the highest levels. Why 
> does JKR have to go further to make the point that Harry no longer 
> idealizes the WW?

Ava:  Because he still has much further to go in accepting the flaws 
he's discovered.  James and Sirius were bullies?  Sirius blows it 
off & even Lupin makes light of it.  That confuses Harry a bit, to 
his credit he finds that raises troubling questions - but he doesn't 
make the next step, to try to find out the undoubtedly even-more-
troubling answers.  As Snape had earlier pointed out in PoA, Harry 
didn't want to know the truth, & Harry had to admit (to himself) 
that Snape was right.  I see no sign that he's quite ready to face 
the unpleasant truths yet, either, in OotP.  He may have seen 
Snape's POV in the Pensieve, but clearly, he hasn't yet internalized 
it.  

> She said in her recent chat that Harry will begin to master his 
> emotions and make a contribution, since the war is on. To me, that 
> means Harry's downhill slide will curve back up in the final two 
> books. 

Ava:  I would hope so.  IMHO, JKR has captured 15-year-old 
stubborness, obnoxious, self-righteous & ready to blame the Usual 
Suspects for everything and anything he (or those he admires) might 
otherwise share blame for.  In a word: S-n-a-p-e.
 
> Jen: Harry already understands how many ways there are for people 
to 
> let him down, and he still finds hope when he's by the lake, when 
he 
> talks to Luna, and in the last sentence of OOTP:
> 
> "He somehow could not find words to tell them what it meant to 
him, 
> to see them all ranged there, on his side. Instead, he smiled, 
> raised a hand in farewell, turned around, and led the way out of 
the 
> station toward the sunlit street, with Unlce Vernon, Aunt Petunia, 
> and Dudley hurrying along in his wake."
> 
> I love that scene, Harry walking toward the sunlight, the 
imperfect 
> people he loves most in the world supporting him, and the 
> Durlsey's 'following in his wake'. I'd say he's arrived.

Ava:  Arrived where?  He's taken a step in the right direction, no 
doubt.  But until he can accept Sirius' own responsibility for his 
death, and even his OWN culpability, and can recognize that it 
wasn't really UsualSuspect!Snape's fault, he's still in danger of 
making serious mistakes - in his relationship with the world, in his 
personal development, and in the battle against Voldemort.