Dumbledore has plenty of heart (was; Re: Dumbledore the Counselor)

[Freud]

No: HPFGUIDX 124545


Lupinlore:
> 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.

It can be both.  He can recognize that Harry has the powers to be
a weapon, but still love Harry as a person. 

I see no evidance that Dumbledore is heartless. 
Just the opposite. 

Can you love someone and still manipulate them if you think it is 
for their own good?  Parents do it every day.  Can you love someone 
completely and still be wary of their powers?  Of course you can. 

I think that Dumbledore loves Harry completely - but he is also wary 
of his powers and conflicted about his future.     

Time and again Dumbledore is the one person who stands up for
the people who have been damaged, who have serious problems, who
don't look attractive, who have crazy ideas, personality disorders, 
handicaps etc. etc. etc. 

If he was heartless would he have kept Hagrid at Hogwartz?
Would he keep Trelawney at the school even if she couldn't teach?
He even hired a werewolf!

My heck, Dumbledore even stood up for Kreacher - who is repugnant. 

On the few occassions when Dumbledore has been confronted by others 
wishing to cause him harm he never even did anything awful to them. 
I would have liked to see Fudge or Umbridge turned into a gopher or 
something...but he didn't.  He showed restraint.   


Of course Dumbledore loves Harry as a person.  He has said so.  

"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 defense? 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." 

Here is the part that makes me believe that Dumbledore feared for 
the future:

"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." (OP37) 

"such a person" - that is an odd way of defining Harry - he 
certainly doesn't call Harry a helpless little baby.  Someone with 
the power the slaughter people in the future?  That sounds like a 
weapon to me. 

Tabekat