Dumbledore the Counselor (was: Dumbledore the General)

lupinlore bob.oliver at cox.net
Sat Feb 12 07:27:57 UTC 2005


No: HPFGUIDX 124405


<SNIP>
> 
> Nevertheless.
> OotP, ch 37:
> 
>  . "Do you see, Harry? Do you see the flaw in my brilliant plan
>  . now? I had fallen into the trap I had foreseen, that I had
>  . told myself I could avoid, that I must avoid."
> 
>  . "I don't -" 
> 
>  . "I cared about you too much," said Dumbledore simply. "I 
>  . cared more for your happiness than your knowing the truth,
>  . more for your peace of mind than my plan, more for your life
>  . than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed. In 
>  . other words, I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools
>  . who love to act."
> 
>  . "Is there a defence? I defy anyone who has watched you as
>  . I have - and I have watched you more closely than you can 
>  . have  imagined - not to want to save you more pain than you 
>  . had already suffered. What did I care if numbers of nameless
>  . and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in the
>  . vague future, if in the here and now you were alive, and 
>  . well, and happy? I never dreamed that I would have such a 
>  . person on my hands."
> 
> If anything, Dumbledore admits that he erred on the side of being too
> concerned for Harry rather than heartless enough, and he knows that
> the consequences of his affection for this one child may well spell
> disaster for many others.
> 
> I expect that like Harry's love for Sirius casting Voldemort out of
> his body, Dumbledore's affection for Harry will, in the end, prove to
> be important to Harry's ability to save them all.  Our choices reveal
> us, and Dumbledore chose to love.  :)

True.  And that argues EXACTLY AGAINST the point you seemed to be
making before.  Is Dumbledore a heartless manipulator who sees Harry
as a weapon or is he someone who loves Harry as a person?  He can't be
both.  Either he sees Harry as a person OR he sees Harry as a tool. 
If he sees Harry as a tool he deserves the worst consequences
imaginable.  If he sees Harry as a person that that is a whole
different story.  I would argue, as you do here, that JKR would have
DD see Harry as a person.  That is not, however, what you implied in
your previous post.

Lupinlore







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