Olive Branch (was Re: Dumbledore the Counselor )

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 124498


<SNIP>
> 
> Charme:
> 
> I don't know that he didn't express enough sorrow about the
situation per 
> canon.  I'm referring to that single tear, and DD's admittance that
Harry 
> wasn't as nearly angry with him as he ought to be, and asked to be
heard out 
> fully before Harry attacked him as he would like to have fully
"earned it." 
> At least he had the, well...said nicely, intestinal fortitude to get
it all 
> out in the open.  I also refer to this:

True.  But it seems to me that DD is referring to his decisions about
Sirius and Harry's fifth year, NOT about the full scope of Harry's
suffering.  I readily acknowledge the DD shows remorse for his
decisions and their effects during OOTP.  But I don't take his remorse
as extending beyond that.


> 
> "'It is time,' he said, `for me to tell you what I should have told
you five 
> years ago, Harry. Please sit down. I am going to tell you
everything. I ask 
> only a little patience. You will have your chance to rage at me - to do 
> whatever you like - when I have finished. I will not stop you.'" (OoP)
> 
> Please, if you could be so kind, help me understand where that
statement 
> infers or alludes to the cut and dried explanation interpretation in
your 
> post above given that statement by DD.

I am referring to the section the begins "You had suffered..."  It
reads, at least to me, as being quite brisk and businesslike, with
little expression of remorse.  In fact, when Harry attempts to protest
the Petunia doesn't love him, Dumbledore cuts him off and says "But
she took you."  One way to read that is "You stayed alive kid and you
don't have a right to complain.  So suck it up and quit being a crybaby."



  I'm really curious because I don't 
> see it the way you do, and that's why I'm asking. I'd also like to
know what 
> form of accountability would satisfy those who believe as you do, as
I'm not 
> sure what else DD could have said other than the truth.  The truth is a 
> wonderful, terrible thing and often it's not embellished - people
who need 
> the truth need to hear it (especially when anger is involved)
without much 
> emotional fanfare.

Well, I think what we want is something to the effect of "I'm horribly
sorry you've suffered so badly, Harry, and I want you to know that if
I could have spared you any of it I would have done so.  I would give
anything to have been able to put you in a place where you would have
been happy and loved, but I honestly believe you would have died had I
done that.  If there had been any other option, I would have taken
it."  Dumbledore MIGHT be saying that, but to get it you have to
squint a little and read between the lines.  It is certainly implied
in his statement about "I defy anyone who ... to save you more pain
than you had already suffered."  Implied but not stated, and mixed in
with all sorts of references to a "plan" that undercuts many people's
faith that he really cared whether Harry suffered or not, at least
during Harry's early life at the Dursleys.  The speech he makes in
SS/PS about not wanting Harry's head to be turned muddies the waters
badly as well, as does his reference in OOTP about Harry not being a
pampered prince.  There is simply far too much fodder there for
Puppetmaster!Dumbledore speculation.  I don't want to believe in that
interpretation of DD, but JKR did little in that speech to dispel my
disquiet.

There is also the issue of why, having once placed Harry at the
Dursleys, he did nothing to intervene to stop the Dursleys abuse. 
That is not even hinted at in his speech in OOTP.



> 
>  Interestingly, the one time DD shows emotion by closing his eyes and 
> burying his face in his hands (before the truth and the tear at the
end), 
> Harry as the narrator's point of view perceives this as a weakness,
which 
> funny enough, rather reminded me of Snape's statement to him earlier
in the 
> book during Occulmency where he compares people who wear their
hearts on 
> their sleeves to being weak.  Not sure why it did, but there you
have it.
> 
> Charme

True, which I take as another piece of evidence that Harry is an
emotionally wounded dude.  But that is a live wire.

Lupinlore