Characters and Consequences? /What does Dumbledore wanted on the Tower?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 141751

 Lupinlore:
> 
> Are you saying DD would have made Harry sleep in a closet?  Somehow I 
> doubt it.  


Pippin:

He certainly kept Harry isolated and in the dark in OOP. So yeah, he would, if he thought it 
was necessary. It wasn't necessary, AFAWK, for the Dursleys to keep Harry in the closet.
But then the closet is the least of what's wrong with the situation at
the Dursleys; getting Harry a nicer bedroom would be like putting a band-aid on the 
Titanic. It wouldn't stop the Dursleys from being bulllies, it would only make their bullying 
subtler and harder to detect, like Riddle's.

Lupinlore:
Nor, once again, does this make DD look very good at all.  

Pippin:
It makes Dumbledore someone who accepts the heirarchy of needs. Safety comes before 
attachment. People who ignore danger in order to pursue an attachment are said to be in 
denial. Dumbledore is not in denial about how dangerous Voldemort and his followers 
were, even with Voldemort apparently vanquished. Harry isn't either, which is why he has 
no trouble with Dumbledore's decision once he understands why it was made. 

Lupinlore:
> DD has no rightful authority over Harry,Having made the decision, he had a 
responsibility, if he  did indeed understand what was happening at the Dursleys, to 
> intervene -- very forcefully if necessary. 

Pippin:
 I don't see JKR backing away from Dumbledore knowing what went on at the Dursleys, far 
from it.  He seems to know more than ever in HBP, even all about how they treat Dudley. 
But there's more going on at Privet Drive than meets the eye. For one thing, we're told in 
HBP that Harry has been refusing meals, which means that someone (Petunia?) is trying to 
see that he eats them.

Perhaps some element of her  better nature is trying to assert itself? If Dumbledore had 
come in with some heavy-handed "take better care of Harry or I'll turn you into a toad" 
would that part of her ever have surfaced? Or would it have strengthened the part of her 
that says all wizards are the enemy?

I know it can be empowering for the victims of oppression to imagine that they are in their 
oppressor's shoes and can give them a good kicking, but I think that's not what JKR is 
aiming at. IMO, she's  aiming at the culture of bullying, not individual bullies. If that's what 
she's going for, then she has to give  Dumbledore some other way of dealing with the 
bullies than by becoming a big bad bully himself. 

Pippin