DD and Harry in Book VI. The Dursleys or the WW?

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 123970


> > Phoenixgod2000 wrote:
> > If the Dursleys were the best that Dumbldore can do, then he
> > suffered a failure of imagination, IMO. He's a wizard for merlins
> > sake!
> <snip>
> 
> > vmonte responds:
> > Unless it was Snape who swayed Dumbledore into sending Harry to 
the  Dursleys. <funny bit of Snape arguments snipped>
> 
Northsouth wrote:
> I don't think that Snape at this point has much sway on 
Dumbledore. 
> He's only been teaching for 1-2 years, he's very young, his grudge 
> against James is probably still nice and hot. I don't think DD is 
> going to be swayed by, of all people, Snape at this point. He 
> overrides all of McG's arguments without much thought. 
> 
> Come to think of it, when would Snape have has time to persuade 
> anyone of anything anyhow? It was a Monday night that Voldemort 
> showed up in Godric's hollow. Persumably, Snape was busy teaching 
all  of Tuesday anyhow. (I wonder how McG managed to get away for a 
day). 
> And DD appears to have come up with the orders to Hagrid very 
> quickly - Hagrid showed up at GH before the muggles did, having 
had  time to go get a motorbike off Sirius first. DD seems to have 
arrived  at the decision to place Harry with the Dursleys very very 
quickly. 


Hannah:  With regards to where Snape was, this is assuming he was 
actually teaching at Hogwarts at the time.  It can be argued that 
he'd started the previous September (just before GH), but it is also 
possible that he didn't take on his role at the school until after 
GH, perhaps mid-year, or maybe not until the following September.  
This latter would make more sense to me.  But from the dates he 
gives Umbridge in OotP, we know the *longest* he can have been 
teaching is two months, if he has been at all.

Secondly, I think normal life was suspended for the few days after 
GH, so there probably weren't any lessons. Hence DD, McG, Hagrid 
and, if necessary, Snape were all able to devote themselves to other 
things.

I agree that I don't see anyone else swaying DD in his decision of 
where to send Harry.  He knew what he wanted to do.  Disturbingly, 
it seems likely he had made that decision *before* the events at GH 
actually happened, or at least extremely rapidly afterwards, not 
allowing time for much (or any) consultation.  From what we have 
seen of the way DD operates in subsequent books, it seems that he 
rarely consults anyone in his plans, or even informs them of what is 
going on.  I doubt he'd have listened to anybody else on something 
as important as the fate of baby Harry.

Hannah