Many sleepless nights

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 124712


-Paul:"Suppose you are Dumbledore the most powerful wizard and the
most well connected one I will add. You have someone of great value to
protect. First of all don't tell me that you don't check what kind of
people will take care your protege or how they treated him after they
had taken him."

How do you check them out? Petunia's nosy and Vernon is a
tight-wrapped narrow-minded man, but they have one son they indulge
constantly.  You couldn't predict their behavior towards Harry.  Where
do you go (in the hours after the death of Harry's parents) to "check
out" the Dursleys?

Paul"Couldn't AD at least "force" them to act more mildly, not in an
active way but with a subtle one like I don't know a
Dursley-specific-to-act-in-a-human-way ward or at least a
not-abuse-Harry ward. I am not saying to make them act as Harry's
parents but at least not as his jailers."

No, he can't. People who try to be puppeteers find out the puppets
don't cooperate, and forcing people to do something they don't want to
do usually fails.  Listen, I know. I'm in a job where I'm trying to
get people to do things they don't want to do, and it's much harder
than anyone thinks.

Paul:"Secondly about the risk that took AD to raise Harry in a similar
environment to Tom Riddle's I have only two adages to say. "Don't play
with the fire If you don't want to be burned" and "The road to hell is
made on good intentions"."

Harry is very different than Tom.  He had a year with his natural
parents that Riddle didn't have, an important year.  The Dursleys are
detestable people and Harry had very rough time with them, but when we
say "abuse," we're using the same word we use for daily beatings,
broken bones, and 14 year olds who weigh 70 pounds.

We have no idea what the orphanage experience Tom had was like, but we
do know he was the Heir of Slytherin and had a despicable father

It's the nature of things that people who make decisions, who actually
have to get things done, have to make hard choices and usually don't
have ideal options (there's a term, "AOS," All Options S**k).  These
leaders often don't have the luxury of time to make these decisions
in, either.  They accept risks for themselves and others. Accepting
risks for others is always much harder than accepting them for
yourself, and it's so often absolutely necessary.

Dumbledore has made the tought calls. It's no surprise many of them
weren't ideal 

Jim Ferer