...once again Dumbledore!Abuse /Blood magic v Love magic

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 142863

Lupinlore:
<SNIP>
> But actually, that isn't the issue, anyway.  The issue is, I think, 
> the fact that JKR was not at all clear with that final speech in 
> OOTP.  It simply puts Dumbledore in far too bad a light for 
> an "epitome of goodness."  And I do think she means us to take that 
> at face value.  

Alla:

No, she was not ( IMO only of course) - on this point I agreed with 
you in the past and must agree again. As I said earlier, I have no 
problem understanding Dumbledore choice if it comes down to Dead!
Harry or Alive! but Abused!Harry. Well, actually I do have many 
problems with it, but I would like it to be absolutely clear from the 
text that there was no OTHER place for Harry to be safe.

I don't have OOP in front of me, but I don't remember Dumbledore 
saying anywhere in that speech of his that Harry could not have been 
safe anywhere else, that blood protection was the ONLY way to protect 
Harry.

Yes, Dumbledore says that he invoked that magic, yes he says that you 
will be protected from DE where your mother's blood dwells ( 
paraphrase), but I don't remember him mentioning that nothing else 
would have worked. Could be wrong of course.


Lupinlore:
> By backing off Dumbledore's knowledge in HBP -- and yes, I think 
JKR 
> pays a LOT more attention to discussions in the fandom than she 
> sometimes lets on and was very deliberately backing off -- JKR 
> restored him to his "epitome" status, but at the cost of making him 
> into a benign bungler.  But better that than a child abuser.

Alla :

Yes, I agree. I also said several times in the past that for  me the 
speech in OOP would have worked better if among other things 
Dumbledore would have admitted to agonising over the decision to 
leave Harry at Dursleys. His speech in HBP worked for me because at 
least Dumbledore tells us that he wanted Dursleys to treat Harry as a 
son, but to his regret things did not work out that way. So to me 
Dumbledore's expectations in HBP do sound very different from 
Dumbledore's expectation of situation as he described it in OOP " I 
knew you would suffer, I knew I had left you for ten dark and 
difficult years" ( paraphrase).

a_svirn:
> And not only that. Although unlike Lupinlore I do not think Rowling 
> such a poor writer, I do believe that this "blood protection" thing 
> is not one of her better ideas. She has drilled this "All you need 
> is Love" mantra into our heads for years now, she has pretty well 
> trashed out the subject of anti-Mudblood prejudices and how it is 
> ridiculous to place so much reliance on one's origins. And yet, 
when 
> it comes down to the matters of Life and Death it tunes out 
suddenly 
> that a shared gene pool is much more important than a shared 
> sentiment. 


Alla:

Ooooo, this is a GREAT point, a_svirn. I had never thought about it 
on meta level. I've never thought that "blood protection" can be 
looked at as contrary to the main theme of the series.

Indeed, why Harry woudn't be safer with people who love him, instead 
of people who are his blood relatives but cannot stand him?

I mean I am of firm conviction that close family members are supposed 
to love and care for each other, no doubt about it, but if they 
don't, I am also not quite sure why " blood magic" ( for  the lack of 
better term) should be stronger than love magic.

I often speculated that this is strange that Harry staying with 
Dursleys would be safer than Harry staying with Dumbledore, but I 
only thought about it in terms of Dumbledore being the " only one 
Voldemort ever feared".

But Albus also claims to love Harry ( and I think he does), so why 
couldn't his love be stronger protection than forcing Harry on 
Dursleys?

I suppose after his HBP speech we could speculate that he hoped that  
blood magic and love magic will come together and Dursleys will learn 
to love Harry ( treat him like a son?).


JMO of course,

Alla