Omniscient Dumbledore (Was Re: Snape's AK Failed!!!, and DADA responses)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 134888

> >>Janeway:
> I'm curious to know why so many folks seem to believe in an all-
> knowing, all-powerful Dumbledore (or nearly so), when there's     
> soooo much canon pointing to his mistakes.
> <snip - see below> 
> So it surprises me that many people seem to base their belief in 
> Good!Snape wholly or partly on their belief that DD could never   
> make a mistake like that.

Betsy Hp:
It's not that I believe in an Omniscient!Dumbledore. (I've posted 
plenty of times on how much I *hate* that view of him.)  I just have 
a hard time wrapping my head around "complete and total fool"!
Dumbledore.  Because for Snape to pull the wool so totally over 
Dumbledore's eyes, Dumbledore would *have* to be an idiot. (Or Snape 
would have to be pretty darn omniscient, and I don't buy that idea 
either.)

> >>Janeway:
> <snipped out of order>
> It hardly seems necessary to reiterate what they are, as most of  
> them form the plots of the previous books: LV!Quirrel, TR!Ginny,   
> Spy!Pettigrew and Innocent!Sirius, Polyjuice!Barty, and the big   
> reveal of OOP that DD blames himself for Sirius death because he   
> didn't trust Harry with the truth about the prophecy. You have to 
> do some pretty hard theorizing to explain away all of these       
> mistakes (not that I haven't tried!!).

Betsy Hp:
Not really.  At least, not IMO.  Quirrel was suspected and watched 
(with Snape's assistence) throughout PS/SS.  Dumbledore knew 
Voldemort must have had *something* to do with the chamber opening, 
but his best information had Voldemort skulking about some dark 
forest.  He'd have had to be Omniscient to hit upon little Ginny as 
the prime suspect. (Especially as Diary!Tom *knew* he needed to 
avoid Dumbledore's attention.)  And Dumbledore *did* suspect that 
there was a spy amongst the Mauraders, he just didn't know who.  I'd 
also add that neither Peter nor Sirius were working closely with 
Dumbledore.  Not as closely as Snape has been these past six years.

Fake!Moody did fake out Dumbledore, but again, Fake!Moody wasn't 
around Dumbledore that much, and Dumbledore didn't have any reason 
to suspect Moody.  (Whereas there were plenty of reasons for 
Dumbledore to suspect a conveniently remorseful Snape showing up on 
his front door.)

As to Dumbledore not telling Harry about the prophecy, that's not 
really on par with trusting the wrong people, IMO.  Dumbledore made 
the common "old man's" mistake of trying to keep a young person 
young.  He was over-protective of Harry's innocence.  That's quite 
different from misjudging your top spy's loyalties.  IMO, anyway.

Remember, Dumbledore was one of the few people *not* taken in by Tom 
Riddle's charm.  And you know Tom did his best to win Dumbledore 
over.  I myself think Tom Riddle was a better actor than Snape.  
Snape doesn't strike me as the sort to generally have people eating 
out of his hand.

> >>Alla:
> <snip>
> Just as previous poster, I am not quite sure why the idea that
> Dumbledore can be wrong again seems surprising.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
For me it's because there's wrong, and then there's *wrong*.  So 
Dumbledore hires Lockhart because he's desperate for a DADA teacher 
and he hopes that not all of Lockhart's bragging is false.  Turns 
out that yes, Lockhart is a complete incompetent.  But he's not out 
to kill any of the student body.  So, in this case, Dumbledore is 
wrong.  But no real harm done.

But, if it turns out that Snape has been playing Dumbledore for a 
fool for all those years...  Well, it means that Dumbledore was 
*wrong*, in an "and for that reason, the Order lost the war" sort of 
way.  This isn't a simple, "ooh, that teacher turned out to not know 
his subject, best hire a new one," mistake.  This is a "but Jack was 
such a *nice* man, I thought he was a butcher and the Ripper thing 
was an old school nickname," type of error.

For me, if Snape is truly Voldemort's man, Dumbledore is not just 
fallible, he's a fool. And frankly, that would be harder for me to 
take than the actual betrayal.

Betsy Hp