Could Harry have saved Dumbledore?

[Deb]

No: HPFGUIDX 135767


> Sherry now:
<SNIP>
> 
> No, I don't think any 16 year old kid would have thought to ask 
such
> questions, when he was going somewhere with the greatest and most 
powerful
> wizard in the world, the person Harry believed knew how to handle 
anything,
> trusted implicitly.  It's almost parental.  I wouldn't ever have 
thought of
> questioning if my dad had all we needed for something, even  if it 
was
> something dangerous.  Even now, in my 40's, if my dad was alive, I 
wouldn't
> think of questioning his preparedness.  Harry wouldn't have 
thought he
> needed the luck potion, when he was with Dumbledore.  He did 
believe that
> those left behind at the school would need it, and he was right.  
Remember,
> at the beginning of the book, when Harry and Dumbledore set off to 
find
> Slughorn?  Dumbledore tells Harry that nothing will happen to him, 
because
> Harry is with Dumbledore.  The kind of absolute faith Harry has in
> Dumbledore would never think of questioning if there was anything 
else
> needed for this trip, because he would be sure Dumbledore was 
completely
> prepared.  

Deb writes:
  Sherry, I am not blaming Harry for the outcome of the trip to the 
cave ... though I disagree with this part of what you said "now, in 
my 40's, if my dad was alive, I wouldn't think of questioning his 
preparedness" ... I did certainly, in my 40s and now 50s,  at times 
question my Dad's preparedness as he grew older ... and Dumbledore 
is 150 years old! And Harry did have the opportunity to take some 
FF ... and Hermione even pushes him to do so(HBP amer HB page 553)  
as well as get other items ... he took good care of his friends by 
giving them the FF and the Maurader's Map before leaving with DD.. 
so it's not as if he is never unplanful.... 

I'm merely saying that he has alot to pull together between the end 
of book 6 and the end of book 7. Let me illustrate by creating 
a "Pensieve Moment"... because I think, based solely on information 
available in the books, that Harry knows the antidote to the potion 
that was in the bowl. On another thread I speculated that the potion 
was Draught of Living Dead and/or was one element needed to create 
an Inferi... an animated corpse that was under LV's control.  See 
what you make of these pieces ("memories") from HBP and previous 
books...
 1- HBP Amer HB page 374: Hermione - "Golpatott's-Third-Law-states-
that-the-antidote-for-a-blended-poison-will-be-equal-to-more-than-
the- sum-or-the-antidotes-for-each-of-the-separate-components"
 page 375: Slughorn - "...that assuming we have achieved correct 
identification of the potion's ingredients ... our primary aim is 
not the relatively simple one of selecting antiddotes to those 
ingredients in and of themselves, but to find that added component 
that will, by an almost alchemical process, transform these diparate 
elements...."
 2-SS amer PB page 171: Snape - "For your information, Potter, 
asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known 
as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the 
stomach of a goat and will save you from most poisons. As for 
monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by 
the name aconite..." Is it not possible... even probable that 
aconite/monkshood/wolfsbane is the "added component" for the 
antidote to Draught of Living Death  
 3-GOF amer HB page 234: Professor Snape was forcing them to 
research antidotes... page 300 Snape "Antidotes...You should all 
have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully 
and then we will be selecting someone on whom to test one"... page 
396 He found it hard to concentrate on Snape's Potions test and 
consequently forgot to add the key ingredient -a bezoar - meaning he 
received bottom marks. 
  Harry has studied antidotes in class twice by the end of HBP.. 
once with Snape and once with Slughorn... and DLD has been mentioned 
3 or 4 times...  

  Sherry  writes: 
> And let's not try to let Snape off the hook by laying the blame on 
Harry.
> Harry's shouldered enough blame that he doesn't deserve, without 
taking the
> blame for this!  Snape murdered Dumbledore.  It is his fault 
completely.
> The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of Snape, right where it 
belongs.
> I realize that those who think Snape is still on the good side 
disagree with
> that.  It is of course only my opinion, but Harry doesn't need to 
take on
> any more blame for things that are not his fault.
 
Deb writes:
Yes Snape did ultimately kill Dumbledore I'm not arguing that. The 
most important question though is why did he do this? And why did 
*he* need to be the one to do it? As Dumbledore said to Harry in 
POA "the consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so 
diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business 
indeed".... Which part of the outcome in HBP are the consequences of 
DD's actions, which part are Harry's consequences, which part are 
Snape's consequences...?  

 This is not about blame, it's about responsibility and learning 
from one's experiences. I still say Harry has a lot to learn if he 
is to ultimately vanquish Voldemort.

  Deb