The Art of Love according to Albus Dumbledore (was:Harry left at the Dursleys)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 118258



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "carolynwhite2" 
<carolynwhite2 at a...> wrote:
> 
> I submit that Dumbledore failed with Tom, big time ('it's our 
> choices'). It's that pain he is re-living, and which makes him take 
> such a cool, clinical attitude to Harry. Not only does he have the 
> detachment brought by great age, but probably he is still unsure 
> whether this second child might go off the rails, and therefore by 
> instinct now, trusts no one, and keeps most of his plans to himself.
> 

There is an attractiveness to this argument, and perhaps something to 
it, but I don't buy it in this context.  Having failed with Tom the 
first time, Ddore would be incredibly foolish to embark on a similar 
deliberate experiment (i.e. child abuse) with Harry.

Now, I will admit that I just don't buy the whole alchemical 
explanation.  I think it is reading WAAAAAAAAY too much into the 
text.  But that is my opinion and other people are, of course, 
entitled to theirs.  But I think this is a point where it is the 
weakest, because here it (if I understand it correctly) requires 
Dumbledore to do something that is not only reprehensible, but 
foolish.  

Now, I grant that often mystical explanations make sense out of 
seemingly foolish actions.  But this, I think, is a bridge too far.  
That is, of course, just my personal opinion.

Lupinlore