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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