Dumbledore the teacher (was: Umbridge, detention, scars, and plotlines, oh m

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 126109


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman"
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
 
<SNIP>

> As for the TWT, I think how one evaluates DD's behavior turns on 
> whether one believes that the name's having gotten into the cup and 
> then gotten out as a selection *truly* constitutes a binding 
> contract, regardless of HOW those things happened.  This has been 
> debated here before, and there are those who feel that there has to 
> be a way for a Headmaster or step in and say, "Oh, no, no.  This is a 
> mistake.  He's underage and he will NOT compete."  There are others 
> who believe that the stated *binding contract* really is just that 
> and there was nothing DD could do to get Harry out of it.  (Hard to 
> imagine, a bit, I'll admit -- I mean, what if Harry had just 
> said, "No, thanks"?)
> 
> The question which came to mind for me as I read Phoenixgod's reasons 
> for not finding DD very believable in OotP was this:  Could it be 
> that until the very end of GoF, DD could convince himself that 
> Harry's antics were all "practice," but now that Voldy had a 
> *corporeal body* back, could hold a wand and move about at will, was 
> human again, it meant that DD could no longer deny the reality of the 
> situation?  Voldy was back at full force, and Harry would have to 
> face him -- the real thing.  It wasn't "practice" anymore.  I mean, 
> could that explain why he so suddenly turned *from* allowing Harry to 
> do all these risky things *to* trying to protect him in ways he 
> hadn't before?
> 
> Just askin',
> Siriusly Snapey Susan

Well, let me offer a meta-solution to some of these problems.  I
really don't think Dumbledore is meant to be seen as a puppetmaster,
at least not to anything near the extent he often is.  My suspicion is
that we will find:

1) That he didn't intend for things in PS/SS to come to the point they
did.  He gave the cloak to Harry to see what Harry could/would
accomplish, but things got out of hand very quickly.

2) He had no intention of Harry invading the CoS alone.

3) The situation with Sirius and the Dementors got out of hand as well

4) The GoF DOES establish a binding contract DD could not alter

And, basically, as JKR says, DD lets Harry have freedoms he doesn't
allow other students, but also reluctantly lets him learn some hard
lessons he really, really would rather shield Harry from.  But I don't
think he ever intended Harry to get into the kind of dangers he has,
and he wanted the lessons to be more in the way of the fact that not
everyone in the WW is nice OR good, and that Harry needs to realize
that there are a lot of people out there who really DO wish him harm
(recall that when JKR alluded to this she was answering a question
about why Dumbledore tolerates the children of Death Eaters gaining
prominence at Hogwarts).  We have clues to that in statements like
"You faced Voldemort much sooner than I had intended," and his
allusion to how Harry stunned him with his reaction to the PS/SS
situation.

So, in the end I think we are going to see Dumbledore as incompetent
more than outright manipulative.  Indeed, most of his manipulativeness
in JKR's mind would seem to consists of him 1) enabling Harry's
decisions, and 2) letting some people like the Malfoy clique (and
maybe Snape) act like jerks even though he would really rather punish
Malfoy and his cronies and tell Snape to keep his mouth shut.

So, why does DD show such lapses of competence?  Well, the answer is
that there IS a puppetmaster at work, and her name is J.K. Rowling. 
Dumbledore has provided her with an all-too-useful tool for massaging
plot events the way she wanted them to go, and I think she sometimes
indulged herself in plotting without really thinking of the
implications for DD's character.  Or, to put it another way, there
really are TWO Dumbledore's.  There is Dumbledore the character, the
kindly, wise headmaster who is the epitome of goodness and who loves
Harry deeply and weeps that his beloved child has endured such pain. 
And there is Dumbledore the hand and mouthpiece of God (or at least
JKR, who is the functional equivalent in the Potterverse) and who
therefore does things that seem out of keeping with his character and
who seems curiously incompetent at crucial moments in the story
basically because the plot NEEDS him to act in incompetent ways.

Lupinlore