Ring of trust (Was: Marietta and the DA).

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 121554


"justcarol67" <justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> 
> > Harry trusts Hermione, right? And Hermione trusts Dumbledore and
Dumbledore trusts Snape. So Harry, by your reasoning, "has" to trust
> > both Dumbledore and, by extension, Snape. 
> 
Eggplant responded:
> Three points:
> 
> 1) The ring of trust is not a law of nature, it is just a rule of 
> thumb you can use if you don't have anything better, like first hand 
> experience of Snape.
> 
> 2) The longer the chain the less certain I would be of their 
> honesty. If the chain were very long I would only be comfortable if 
> there were several independent chains all extolling their honesty.
> 
> 3) Dumbledore is just not a very good judge of character. Yes 
> Dumbledore trusts Snape but he admits he was wrong about the man at 
> least once; and it wouldn't be the first time he placed too much 
> trust in somebody. He must have trusted Quirrell, Lockheart, and the 
> fake Moody too or he wouldn't have hired them. 

Carol responds:
Thanks for the explanation, though I for one still trust DD's judgment
of Snape, in part because he knows him very well--seven years as a
student at Hogwarts, about a year as a spy, and fourteen years as a
teacher. DD has information about Snape to which neither Harry nor we
as readers are privy.

And one small correction, if I may. DD didn't hire Fake!Moody. He
hired the real Moody, who was Imperio'd and forced to live in his own
trunk by the imposter. It's possible that DD began to suspect early
on, say with the transfiguration of Draco into a ferret, that
something was not quite right, but being the type who believes in
innocent until proven guilty, he didn't act until all the evidence was
in. Quirrell was hired before he was possessed by Voldemort, who
entered his head only after Quirrell failed to obtain the Sorceror's
Stone. Quirrell is not wearing the turban when Harry first sees him.
It appears that he was teaching at Hogwarts for an unspecified amount
of time, then took a sort of sabbatical to get some practical
experience (there must have been a substitute for this year), after
which he returned to Hogwarts, now indoctrinated as Voldemort's
servant and pupil. But again, the innocent unti proven guilty
principle applies, and in this case, Snape was suspicious and
investigating Quirrell's "loyalties." As for Lockhart, he was
certainly a fraud and perhaps DD should have been suspicious of his
abilities, but he couldn't have known that Lockhart would attempt a
memory charm on two of his students. That incident was entirely unplanned.

Carol, wondering who subbed for Quirrell and what happened to him