Cedric's death and Dumbledore

[deborahhbbrd]

No: HPFGUIDX 128841

Dumbledore's address to the school is rightly stimulating comments.

The message to be remembered by the school is, surely, that simply
being a good person with outstanding personal qualities did not save
Cedric, because he was totally unprepared for his encounter with the
powers of evil. In other words, constant vigilance!

Cedric didn't make his choice; he was unaware that he should. And, in
life as in law, ignorance was no defence. It would be very harsh on
Cedric to assume that he failed in some way. But rather that
implication than the prospect of having more deaths (and worse) among
the students because they were unprepared.

Or because they made inaccurate assumptions.

Has there ever been a teenager who hasn't thought: "It can't happen to
me"? Or who hasn't indulged in dangerous, reckless, thoughtless
behaviour? Isn't the assumption there that, more or less: I'm a nice
person, I don't deserve bad luck, I'm just doing (whatever) this one
time, it'll be fine. 

And doesn't that leave a gap in their defences that LV could drive a
fleet of assault brooms through?

Here in South Africa we experienced over 20 years of civil unrest
before finally achieving democracy. And at the beginning of that
period, the emotions of a crowd of black people just boiled over on
one occasion and they became, for a time, murderously violent and
destructive. A car with a white woman in it - an aid worker - was
stopped and she was killed. Innocent victim, like Cedric, so far. But
when she realised what was happening, she shouted out: "I'm English!"
- wrongfully believing that the crowd would only target
Afrikaans-speaking whites (identified with the then government) and
that she'd therefore be safe. I have always been horrified and, yes,
embarrassed by her story, and hoped that if I ever got into a similar
situation I wouldn't do the same. But in fact all she could do was
die; her choices had run out. It is confusing, like the situation in
the graveyard. But DD's other message, besides the good old Be
Prepared, is surely the educator's favourite: knowledge is power. Know
what you are actually facing, and it will be easier for you.

Deborah, with a bleak post today.