"Some won't like it". The Scar Connection Implications.

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 130024

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tonks" <tonks_op at y...> wrote:
> 
> 
>
> 
> First this is a war situation.  When your superior tells you to dig 
> a ditch you do it and do it now.

I'll have to agree with Phoenixgod here, I don't recall Harry getting
any draft papers along the way.  I also don't recall anybody giving
Dumbledore a crown and sceptre and proclaiming him high king of all
wizards and witches.

  You don't ask "why?"  Also Harry 
> is not yet an adult and should still do as he is told by an adult in 
> authority over him. (Except Umbridge, which is another story.) I 
> know that this is a shocking idea in modern America and maybe the UK 
> as well, but I don't think that it is in the WW which operated in 
> the 18th century or so. 
>

Not when the adult is a sadistic moron, you don't.  That way lies the
door to all kinds of abuse, including that of Umbridge.  Once you
start, "just do what 'X' says because they're 'X'" your into a very,
very deadly situation.  Also, I might point out that Dumbledore has no
such attitude.  He admits that he was wrong to appoint Snape, thus
backhandedly admitting that Harry was in some sense right in his
failure to work with the man.

 
> Just how many people have to tell Harry before he gets it?  They all 
> told him, not just Snape and DD. Even Sirius told him. Harry 
> wouldn't listen to anyone. Hermione isn't the only *little know it 
> all* this time around.
> 

And why should he listen to anyone, as they were quite pointedly
failing to attempt to understand his situation and help?  Because
they're "adults?"  That's good for a belly laugh.


> 
> And the bottom line is, of course, if Harry had listened and done 
> what was expected of him we wouldn't have a story would we?  We 
> wouldn't have such a keen illustration of what can happen when we 
> are led astray by the forces of evil.

Oh, now this is REALLY a stretch.  Failure of communication between
adult and teenager being led astray by the forces of evil?  I'm sure
my mother and father never knew how many times they supped with Satan!

  We wouldn't have such a good 
> illustration of the importance of stopping and thinking first before 
> we act.  We wouldn't have an example of why we should listen to the 
> voice of reason over emotion.  Now there is a lesson Snape can 
> give. 

Excuse me, I'm laughing so hard I can hardly type for the tears. 
Snape, the voice of reason over emotion?  I guess when you discount,
oh -- pretty much everything about him, that might have an extreme
outside chance of being vaguely true.


> 
> I know that we all love Harry and he is a kid, and has been through 
> a lot, but we really can't let him off the hook here.

Of course we can.  Dumbledore has it right in taking the blame on
himself.  Despite some tempting symbolism, Dumbledore is NOT God. He's
an old man with too much on his mind, a surprisingly naive view of
human nature, and a streak of arrogance that makes him think he has
the right to meddle in other people's lives.  He can and does screw up
royally.  And in OOTP, he screwed up more than royally -- he screwed
up on an Imperial scale.

  It broke my 
> heart to see Harry mess up so badly.  But I think the author did 
> this to help kids understand that even a really serious mistake can 
> be forgiven and life can go on.
> 

It broke my heart to seach such an abysmal mess of a book after JKR's
first four triumphs.  JKR is not trying to help kids do anything.  She
is not trying to help adults do anything.  She is not trying to teach
anything to anybody.  She is trying to tell a story.  In this case, as
phoenixgod has pointed out, it's a story about otherwise smart people
like Dumbledore who inexplicably act like utter idiots in a
particularly tense and important situation.  One can only hope they
manage to find some brains before they manage to screw things up worse
(although since we have two whole books to go yet, they may very well
not).


Lupinlore