Dumbledore the General

[xcpublishing]

No: HPFGUIDX 124428


Alshain:
 
>The best part of three *years*. Britain would be overrun by Death 
>Eaters if Dumbledore took his best fighters out of battle for that 
>long and set them to learn the Animagus transformation.
 
My bad.  For some reason, I thought it was months.  
 
phoenixgod2000:
 
>On the larger topic of this thread, I really want to learn more 
>about Grindlewald and how DD beat him. Have there been any 
>interviews or chats where JK has mentioned if that's going to get 
>talked about at all?

It would be nice to have some background on this entire incident.  
Who was Grindlewald?  Why did Dumbledore have to defeat him?  How did 
he defeat him?  Was he killed?  This would give us some more insight 
as to how DD operates.
 
Betsy:
 
>I know you 
>don't like the way Dumbledore operates. But to carry that through to 
>the conclusion that Dumbledore is clueless or cold-hearted is a 
>little extreme, IMO.  Harry seems to be baring up rather well 
>considering all he's going through, and I think Dumbledore has been 
a 
>big support for him. 

I really don't see DD supporting Harry as much as I see the potential 
of DD USING Harry.  The whole SS/PS scenario seemed like a big setup 
to find out how good Harry was.  Probably a good idea, on DD's part, 
I admit, but not very sterling, character-wise.
 
Alla:
 
>I don't think I am holding Dumbledore up to impossible standards by 
>insisting that he should have made sure that Harry had his friends 
>near by and available. Of course we are not talking about real 
>psychologists. It seems like there are no mind healers in WW. But 
>friends support network should work pretty well, IMO. So, yes, I do 
>hold Dumbledore accountable for cutting Harry off one. And of 
>course, how about letting Ron and Hermione answer Harry questions in 
>hsi letters. I think that would have helped too.

I agree with Alla wholeheartedly on this one.  Harry's entire mindset 
through OoP was enraged - he's angry in nearly every single chapter 
and exploding with rage by the end.  DD should have been wise enough 
to have seen how it would have affected Harry and at least made some 
small effort to ease him through some of his trauma.  Instead, he 
decided to let Snape teach him Occlumency, which was rather like 
throwing gasoline on a bonfire. 
 
Betsy:

>But this is just a guess on your part, right?  Obviously, we don't 
>know how well negotiations are going between the Order and the 
>various magical folk, because Harry doesn't know.  We do know, 
>however, that the magical folk who worked for Voldemort were a great 
>asset to him in the last war (as per Lupin IIRC).  So I'm not sure 
>why Dumbledore approaching them now can be defined as a waste of 
>time.  Even neutrality would be a gain.

Okay, maybe it wouldn't be a complete waste of time, but he also 
should have started on the negotiation thing about fifteen years 
ago.  When it was clear that Voldemort was gone (at least for awhile) 
he should have started campaigning.  Now that LV is back, I don't see 
13th hour scrambling having much effect.
 
Betsy:

>And again - how do you know none of this was done?  Obviously no one 
>was watching the old Riddle home (where Voldemort *never* lived by 
>the way), but it's a little too easy to say with the benefit of 
>hindsight - "oh, but you should have..." 

Why wasn't he watching the Riddle home?  Why didn't he take the time 
to find out everything possible about Tom Riddle?  And where were 
LV's headquarters during the first war?  Someone had to have known 
that.    
 
>It seems to me that in order to argue that Dumbledore has been doing 
>nothing, you have to overlook some fairly stong hints in canon.
 
Frankly, I'm getting very dissatisfied with hints.  I hope she spills 
something concrete in the next book, because after OoP, I'm rapidly 
losing faith in DD.

>But as of right now, Voldemort's return has been indisputably 
>revealed (very much against Voldemort's wishes), Voldemort is still 
>in the dark as to Harry's role in the whole thing

Unfortunately, so is Harry, except that he knows he might have to 
kill Voldemort, and frankly, is that really a surprise?  Did he think 
LV was going to wake up one morning and realize he'd been a very bad 
boy and want to make friends?  Mass murderers tend to require 
extermination because they just don't change.

>and Voldemort lost 
>a good handful of Death Eaters, and a powerful influence at the 
>Ministry.  Dumbledore lost one Order member.
 
He didn't lose any Death Eaters.  Who is going to keep them in 
Azkaban without the Dementors?  Malfoy was right - I think they'll be 
free before the next book begins.

>Again, the idea that Dumbledore, et al have *not* been pro-actively 
>working since Voldemort's first downfall is a mere guess on your 
>part.  And one not very well backed by canon.

Obviously, JKR doesn't come out and say, "DD hasn't been doing much 
in the past fifteen years to prepare for LV's possible return."  Like 
everything else, we're just guessing (which is why we're on this 
list!).  We're guessing that Snape is good (or evil), we're guessing 
that Percy will return to the fold (or not) and we're guessing that 
Harry will have to destroy LV (or be destroyed) and all of this is 
based on what we've read - everyone has a different interpretation.  
The fun part is waiting to see who was right and who was wrong.

>The prosectution of 
>Death Eaters who walked free, the business with the Stone (Voldemort 
>himself admits to falling into despair when Quirrell failed)

I just finished reading SS/PS again and it occurs to me that DD was 
purely lucky with this stone business.  I was thinking it was 
mightily convenient that DD moved the stone on the very day that LV 
was going to try to steal it.  When I first read the book, I assumed 
that DD was nearly omniscient and had moved it for that reason.  
After reading it again with my omniscient theory crushed by OoP, I'm 
thinking that he only moved the stone because Harry was coming to 
Hogwarts and he was setting up a test.  Hagrid was already taking 
Harry to buy his things, so he picked up the stone.  The moving of 
the stone had nothing to do with Voldemort at all.  Just my "guess" 
of course!

Nicky Joe