Of Caves and Tarot Cards

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 135494

Merrylinks:
<snipped canon quotes here, upthread>
> The way I read that, Harry's concern is not Draco, but the safety
> of the school. Dumbledore dismisses his concern. If Dumbledore's
> boggart is causing other people suffering or death because of his
> own mistakes, he has now set himself up to experience that very 
> thing. (We agree that DD is not worried about Draco's attempts on
> his life.)

Jen: In retrospect it looks like Dumbledore set himself and the 
school up by not listening to Harry. But....it's that darn POV 
problem again. We don't know what Dumbledore was doing about the 
Draco problem outside of Harry's vision, or whose side Snape was 
really on at that point in the story. So for me, I extrapolated out 
that Dumbledore cut off Harry's line of inquiry because it's not 
really important news to him. 

And Harry, much as I love him, also had vengeance on his mind that 
night. He mentions the safety of the school, appealing to 
Dumbledore's greatest concern, but I don't think his motivation was 
pure.  

Then we find out on the tower what DD does and does not know:

"I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you 
had been entrusted, in case he used Legilimency against you." (chap. 
27, p. 591). So Dumbledore knew the part where Draco is supposed to 
kill him. 

His error came here: "So the Death Eaters were able to pass from 
Borgin and Burkes into the school to help you...A clever plan, a 
very clever plan...and as you say, right under my nose." (p. 587)

Two things could have happened when Harry tried to talk to DD that 
night: 1) Dumbledore suspected Draco was using the Room of 
Requirement to finalize his plot to kill him, so he wasn't overly 
concerned about Harry's news, or 2) Dumbledore assumed Snape was 
taking care of Draco problem. Either way, DD must have felt it safe 
to leave Hogwarts because, as you said, student safety was his 
primary concern.

Merrylinks:
> My read on DD's begging and pleading in the cave is that it's not
> for himself, but for the safety of the students. If you are right,
> if the potion magnifies a person's greatest fears and guilts, sort
> of like an extreme dementor attack, then DD's constant pleading is
> consistent with that. On the Tower he acts more in character, but
> recall that when DD says, "Severus...", it says, "The sound 
> frightened Harry beyond anything he had experienced all evening.
> For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading." Pleading, not for
> himself, but for the safety of the students, just as he had in an 
> extreme way in the cave.
 
> What do you think?

Jen: I think I'm getting confused <g>! Why would he be pleading with 
Snape for the safety of the students? That moment between them was 
very personal. Dumbledore just realized Snape was not trustworthy 
and betrayed him, or Dumbledore is appealing to Snape to do what he 
must and make a show of killing him. There are probably other 
options as well. But I do think it was a moment between the two of 
them, and had everything to do with their personal relationship.

Jen