Why Voldy came back when he did (was Re: Unfortunate!Peter)

[Sharon]

No: HPFGUIDX 118257


Juli:
> > > Then WHY would DD want LV to return?

Nora:
 That's a big problem for me, too.  DD seems content, even focused, 
on 
> this delaying plan wherein Harry can get experience, grow up, and 
> some things can possibly be changed in the WW for greater 
> preparedness.  It's completely and utterly in DD's best interest to 
> keep Voldemort down as long as he can--but Peter's escape and the 
> events of GoF really throw a wrench into everything there, and we 
> have a Harry facing Voldemort before it was really ideal.  I can't 
> imagine any way that having Voldemort brought back earlier rather 
> than later is advantageous to Dumbledore's plan as stated at the 
end 
> of OotP.


It's not that it's so much advantageous for Dumbledore to have Voldy 
brought back earlier than he would like - but that it's 
disadvantageous toward Voldy himself.  The longer that DD gives Harry 
to grow up, learn more, and become more powerful, the longer he's 
also giving Voldemort to increase his power, his following, and his 
monetary funding.

(It's all about cash flow.)

And really, Harry's biggest asset is his *youth*.  He doesn't know 
the proper rules of conduct in the WW, he doesn't know how to duel 
properly (unless you consider Lockhart to be a good teacher in that 
regard), and like a lot of young people, he doesn't know his own 
limitations.  The older Harry gets, the more often he is likely to 
say, "Oh, I can't do that.  It would be wrong."  Whereas when he was 
young, of *course* he can go to the Third Corridor and check out the 
three-headed dog.  Of *course* he can save his best friend from a 
rabid-appearing dog who's just disappeared under the Whomping 
Willow.  And of *course* he stands a shot at actually throwing an 
Unforgiveable and making it *work*.  He hasn't been told that he 
can't.

But the older he gets - the more he realizes he can't do - the better 
chance that Voldy has to catch him in that moment of indecision.  For 
that reason, I can understand why Dumbledore would be glad, in a way, 
that Voldy has returned before Harry's even started worrying about 
his OWLs.

It's Harry's confidence and recklessness that Voldy really needs to 
fear.

--azriona, who really just lives to play Devil's Advocate from time 
to time