Thin air/Choices Was re:sex/VanishingCabinet/SoulsEtc/Badger/Ch.2/

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 140056

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Matt" <hpfanmatt at g...> wrote:
<snip>
> Dumbledore's *actions* -- engaging in a lengthy dialogue to try 
> to persuade Draco to step back from the brink -- strongly suggest 
> that he thinks Draco's decision is very much in doubt.  Dumbledore
> is teaching here, just as he is in the scene at the end of GF, when
> he exhorts the students to choose what is right, not what is easy. 
> And ultimately I don't think Dumbledore would have chosen the career
> that he did if he did not believe his charges could be taught, on a
> moral level as well as a practical one.

Well said! This is exactly how I read this. Dumbledore stresses to
Draco that he is not a killer. OTOH, we, as readers, know that Draco
*has* acted in a way that was meant to result in murder,
half-heartedly or not (and we also know that Dumbledore knows this),
and so may have some cognitive dissonance (otherwise known as WTF!?)
around Dumbledore's speech. (As I said in an earlier post, I see Draco
as "innocent" of actual murder, but not as "an innocent" by any
means.)

"Exhorts" is exactly the word I would use. Dumbledore means Draco to
hear his words as absolution and benediction; consequences can wait
(they're not going anywhere) for leisure and a safe space. Dumbledore
takes full advantage of Draco's teetering to shove him bodily up onto
solid ground as far and with as much force as he can muster (as the
alternative is an abrupt end to any relevant choice on either of their
parts). At this point, with life and soul hanging in the balance, I
think Dumbledore absolutely *ought* to be acting as "puppetmaster" to
as great a degree as he can manage. One of the things childrearing
adults *do* is manipulate (oh, that dirty word) their charges. If
they're doing the job, that is.

Sandy aka msbeadsley