Dumbledore on the Dursleys in OotP (was:Re: Old, old problem.)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 151165


> Magpie:
> But I'd say obviously we're supposed to take Harry's line of reasoning here 
> and get that Dumbledore knew what was going on and let Harry have his 
> chance, and this is a good thing, not a terrible thing as Hermione thinks. 
> And it works because in PS, imo, Dumbledore is still in wise man mode.
 He  *isn't* risking a child's life recklessly because Harry is the hero of a 
> young adventure story and we can trust Dumbledore's watching over the whole 
> thing.  That's why Harry's thoughtful while Hermione is exploding and cut 
> off.  Plus, given what we later know about Dumbledore, it's not like Harry's 
> explanation of how he's "funny" isn't consistent.  Dumbledore *does* put 
> people at risk to give chances to face one's own demons.  (Or in OotP to 
> keep from telling Harry something that might make him look bad.)

Pippin:
But what makes it obvious that we're supposed to take Harry's line? 
 
Canon doesn't show that Harry has any great insight into Dumbledore's
thought processes, in fact trying to understand them makes Harry's
head ache.  What makes it seem obvious is literary convention, in which 
the mentor arranges confrontations with evil as  learning experiences 
for the young hero, as Yoda does for Luke.   But JKR has a disconcerting 
way of invoking literary conventions and then standing them on their heads. 

Seeing the challenges in PS/SS as something which Dumbledore arranged
sets Harry up for his reaction to Dumbledore's seeming abandonment in 
OOP. Harry thinks his mentor must have lost faith in him because of his 
failures.

Harry's experience shows a weakness in his philosophy -- it worked very well
to regard his  encounters with evil as Dumbledore's tests as long as he was 
successful in meeting them, but it provided for no comfort when he failed.

But by the end of OOP Harry is ready to abandon this vision of Dumbledore's
role and so he is only briefly angry at Dumbledore's revelation of weakness.

I was never angry that Dumbledore couldn't find a better choice than leaving
Harry alone at the Dursleys. Personally, I compare the threat of disembodied 
Voldemort to a dormant virus or cancer that could flare up at any time, and 
the Dursleys to the only medicine that could prevent it. As with most lifesaving 
medicines, there are undesirable side-effects, often quite serious.

I think "Remember my last" (indicating, according to JKR, that there had
been earlier letters) in combination with Dumbledore's description
of how reluctant Petunia might have been to take Harry in, could show
that Dumbledore felt he had just barely managed to persuade Petunia to 
offer her home. It would make sense that he would fear to put any
additional pressure on her.  One of the things OOP shows us is that 
people respond to pressure in  unpredictable ways. 

I didn't see Dumbledore's explanations as self-serving. I agree that
it would have been arrogant for him to take full responsibility for Sirius's
actions. Sirius was a grown man, neither a youngster under Dumbledore's
guidance nor an employee like Snape.  He was damaged, but surely
not so impaired that he couldn't be responsible for his own decisions.

Dumbledore cuts off Harry when he starts to rant about Petunia not
because he can't stand to hear his choice of guardians criticized but,
IMO, because he recognizes that this is a diversion. Harry has indeed 
suffered  from lack of love, but it has never mattered to him that *she*
didn't love him.

As for DD's apparent digression into Elf rights,  IMO, it's vital that Harry 
understand that Voldemort's non-human allies see him as the lesser evil,
though Iike much else he was told in that interview, Harry does not
yet fully understand this.

On first reading I was sorry for both of them -- sorry that Harry had to
hear all this at such a difficult time, and sorry that Dumbledore could
not afford to wait any longer. There was never going to be a time when
it felt right to tell Harry these things, and Dumbledore had brought the
wizarding world almost to disaster by waiting in hopes that there would
be.

Pippin