Harry's grief (was: Dumbledore the General)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 124347



> Alla:
> 
> I have an idea. How about... Sirius OR Remus or both of them 
> dropping up for a visit or few and talking to Harry about what 
> happened to him? Sure, it would have mean exposing who 
Mrs. Figg  really is , but it seems like a very small price to pay to 
me.<

Pippin:
Um,  Sirius is a wanted man.  And Lupin is presumed guilty just 
by existing. Umbridge would have no problems at all getting 
permission to send Dementors to a Muggle area to deal with the 
WW's most wanted fugitive and/or his werewolf companion. 

As Lupin explains, Harry could not be moved to Grimmauld 
Place and the company of his friends until the Secret-Keeper 
spell was set up and that took time. Harry did suffer, but he 
would have suffered a lot more if Lupin and Sirius had been 
thrown into Azkaban, or if the DE's decided that Ron and 
Hermione had access to useful information and attacked them 
for it. 

At the end of OOP, Harry wouldn't have been able to grieve in 
peace without Dumbledore's explanation. Consider Sirius's last 
words to Harry, "Harry, take the prophecy, grab Neville and run!"  
If Harry hadn't been told what the prophecy was and why it was 
(and wasn't) important, he would have believed that Sirius had 
come to the MoM to safeguard the prophecy, and that he had 
failed Sirius by letting it be destroyed. The truth that Sirius came 
to save Harry is more painful, but in the end more rewarding, 
because Harry did survive, and he can honor Sirius by continuing 
to do so.

Alla:
> Sirius died what ten... fifteen minutes ago? An hour at best. 
And  you think it is very helpful for Harry to hear that Sirius did
not 
 treat Kreacher well and that in essense Sirius is to blame for his  
own death? <


Pippin:
 I think that Dumbledore's words to Harry about Sirius are being 
misunderstood. Dumbledore says that Sirius is dead because 
he was "brave, clever and energetic"  and such men are  not 
"content to sit at home in hiding while they believe others to be in 
danger." He does not raise the issue of how Kreacher was 
treated.  It is Harry who does that.

"And," whispered Harry, his hands curled in cold fists on his 
knees, "and Hermione kept telling us to be nice to him--"

If Dumbledore had let that stand, he would have wronged 
Hermione as well as the House Elves. He would also have been 
a hypocrite, since he himself had given Sirius the same advice. 
Dumbledore  is  careful to say that he is not blaming Sirius for 
having a blind spot about Kreacher, certainly not when the WW at 
large has a much bigger one, and he makes it clear he does not 
think Sirius deserved to die.  

 Harry finds that he can't stand to hear Sirius criticized and thinks 
that Dumbledore doesn't understand how brave Sirius was and 
how he had suffered, though this was the first thing Dumbledore 
said.

But this is Harry's fear talking, IMO. Harry is trying to control his 
fear of death with a myth: nobody dies except when they deserve 
it or they are too good for this world. 

It is because Harry is  still young enough for such childish 
thoughts  that Dumbledore has been reluctant to inform him 
about the prophecy. But Dumbledore has no choice now--he has 
just had a brush with his own mortality,and been reminded that 
he, unlike Voldemort, does not have unlimited time at his 
disposal. And he must also be thinking that he can't let Harry's 
grief become another excuse for not telling him.

Pippin