Of Caves and Tarot Cards

[mt3t3l1]

No: HPFGUIDX 135523

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> 
wrote:
> 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.  <snip>

Merrylinks responds:
I'm afraid I disagree, Jen. Thanks to legilimency, DD knows what 
Harry is primarily concerned about, and that is the safety of the 
school. The problem is, Dumbledore figures he has the safety issue 
covered. Just like an impatient parent, he dismisses Harry's 
objections in order to get on with the task at hand. What he doesn't 
realize is that Harry is bringing him *new* information that requires 
*new* defense tactics. 

I think that in this book Harry has matured beyond needing vengeance 
against Malfoy. His thoughts as he tries to open the Room of 
Requirement indicate that--"I need to see what Malfoy's doing in 
here..."; I need to see the place where Malfoy keeps coming 
secretly..."; I need you to become the place you become for Draco 
Malfoy..." His objective is to find out what Draco is trying to fix, 
not trying to fix blame on Draco. The broken item, whatever it is, is 
dangerous. And once Harry knows that Draco has fixed it, the danger 
is what he focuses on.


 
> 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


Merrylinks replies:
Dumbledore's earliest statements in the cave/on the Tower are not 
addressed to Snape because Snape doesn't show up until late in the 
Tower scene. Those statements are addressed to the Death Eaters 
(possibly even as Dumbledore is flying toward the tower) and to the 
Death Eaters and Draco on top of the Tower. Remember that in the 
Tower scene, all of the statements are thought statements. Unless a 
person is a legilimens, he/she won't be able to hear them.

Does that make sense?

Merrylinks