Hitler Alive! ...Student Dead!

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 115481


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Magda Grantwich 
<mgrantwich at y...> wrote:
> > HITLER ALIVE!!! STUDENT DEAD!!!
> > 
> > I think the wizard world is frustrated by Dumbledore's 
repeating of /headlines/ without the details to back them up. 
Dumbledore may  have valid strategic reasons for doing so, but 
to the wizard world  at large, that doesn't make it any less 
frustrating. I think this  position is clear when you see how fast 
the wizard world and the students turn their opinions around 
once Harry's interview is published. <<
> > 
> > Steve/bboyminn (was bboy_mn)
> 
> 
> Steve raises a good point.  Personally I'm willing to cut 
Hermione a LOT of SPEW slack because she's the one who 
came up with the idea of giving an interview to the Quibbler and 
putting the story out front where it can do the most good.  It was 
brilliant - and much better than anything Dumbledore came up 
with.  This is where I think Dumbledore really fell down on the job 
- not with regard toocclumency or Harry but with getting the word 
out about Voldemort.  
> 
> What was he thinking of?  What's Dumbledore's strategy?  
He's sending envoys to the giants but not trying to win over the 
wizarding public.<

Harry was the only witness, and Harry wasn't ready to talk. It was 
all he could do to tell Dumbledore--he certainly wouldn't have 
been up to an interview with Rita Skeeter.  

Also, Rita Skeeter had to be blackmailed to write that story the 
way Hermione wanted it written. If Dumbledore had approached 
her  it wouldn't have been printed, or it would have been 
'Disturbed teenage survivor of You-Know-Who's attack, Harry 
Potter, 15, caused outrage yesterday by accusing respectable 
and prominent members of the wizarding community of being 
Death Eaters...." (OOP ch 25). 

A story by Dumbledore or even Harry himself wouldn't have 
persuaded anyone who didn't believe them already, not if it was 
in the Quibbler. It's only Rita Skeeter's byline that gets the story 
the attention it deserves. 

As for the LV Riddle connection, without the diary there's no 
longer any proof that Voldemort is Tom Riddle -- besides most of 
the puristas aren't openly on Voldemort's side, so their only 
reaction would be to sniff "A half-blood? I'm not surprised." It 
would make things harder for Harry and the other half-bloods if it 
got out that Riddle was one of them.

Pippin