...once again Dumbledore!Abuse - a Balanced Approach

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 142744

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <bob.oliver at c...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Bruce Alan Wilson" 
> <bawilson at c...> wrote:
> 
> > Now, one might argue that DD shouldn't have put Harry with the 
> Dursleys in the first place, or should have kept a better eye on 
> them during the first 10 years, but I'm sure that he had reasons for 
> doing what he did.  Harry would have grown up with a very different 
> personality had he grown up in more congenial surroundings; ...
> >  
> 

>Lupinlore:
<
> And once again we are right back into the very problem that JKR was 
> trying to rescue DD from by backing off of this whole issue.  Simply 
> put, such policies make DD an accessory to child abuse.  His 
> reasoning is completely and utterly irrelevant.  ...
> 
> ... DD's speech at the end of that book was  incredibly 
> ill-considered, and opened a can of worms that she tried 
> to shut very firmly once again in the third chapter of HBP.
> 
> Unfortunately, having made that misstep, it is very difficult for 
> her to recover DD's character fully into the mode I think she very 
> sincerely wanted to project.  She has to resort to handwaving and 
> tacit rewriting, ...
> 
> Lupinlore

bboyminn:

Well, I vowed never to get involved in 'Abuse' issues again; yet, here
I am.

I think you are all making way too much of this.

Here is the minimalists version of what happened-

Dumbledore had two choices-

1.) Harry could be comfortable and away from the Dursleys

2.) Harry could be safe from a pack of mad deranged Death Eaters who
were likely bent on Harry's torture and murder.

So ...comfortable ...or DEAD.

Seems like an easy choice.

Harry's life may have been unpleasant but he was alive and safe, and
miserable though that life may be, it is preferrable to the alternative. 

True, Harry could have lived with a wizard family and had some
reasonable degree of protection, but he would have also had a distinct
presence in the wizard world. I think Dumbledore thought it was far
better if the wizard world forgot about Harry Potter-the Boy, and
lived with merely Harry Potter-the Legend. 

Harry's presence in the wizard world would have been a constant
reminded to the Death Eaters who remained behind. Every time they got
together and got drunk, talk would surely turn to the annoying runt
Potter who was a constant reminder of their failure. Much too easy for
drunken conspiricy plots to be hatched if Harry has a presence in the
wizard world. Much too easy for thoughts of revenge to occur when you
see Harry toddling along Diagon Alley with his wizard family.

Dumbledore made a hard choice, one that even he concedes was a bad
choice, but bad as it was, it was also the necessary choice. There was
no other situation that afforted Harry the level of protection he
received from living in the presence of and under the protection of
his mother's blood. 

So, the choices were, Harry lives with his anti-magic uncle and
bullying cousin, or he is tortured and murdered by psychotic Death Eaters.

Seems an easy choice to me.

Now that it is over and Harry is safely at Hogwarts and has proven his
strength of character, I think that opens the door for Dumbledore to
look a little deeper, to express his regret for what Harry had to
endure, to consider and weigh the wisdom of his choices. After the
fact, there is plenty of room for regret and remorse, but before the
fact, there was one overriding priority that trumped all other
thoughts; 'keep Harry alive'.

Sorry, but I don't see any inconsistency in Dumbledore's character. He
made an terrible but necessary choice. One that he regrets but one
that given the same circumstances he would likely have made again.

One last note; I think part of the appeal of JKR's books is that
characters are not Pollyanna, Saturday Afternoon Special, Sunday
School Lesson picture perfect. Every character is flawed and makes
mistakes, and they have to struggle to do the right thing, and people
identify with that struggle a lot more than with letter prefect
flawlessly moral characters. 

Dumbledore made a hard and terrible choice, but a choice that none the
less HAD to be made.

Just one man's opinion.

Steve/bboyminn