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

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 151232

> Pippin:
> I agree that JKR needed to put the information there, but she did
> give Dumbledore a reason to do it. He had just survived Voldemort's
> attempt to kill him. Repeat after me, "No one ever lived after he
> decided ter kill 'em " -- what part of that do you think Dumbledore
> doesn't understand? He's got a year to live at most, if the past is
> any guide, and he knows it just as surely as if he could peek into
> JKR's hard drive.  He's got to tell Harry everything he knows, as 
> much as he knows, as soon as he can. The time is now. Period. 

Sherry:
> Putting myself in the emotional fog of the moment, thinking about
> what Sirius meant to Harry, whether that was reasonable to an 
> outsider's view or not, blaming Sirius could have done more
> damage, turning Harry farther from Dumbledore out of resentment 
> and instinctive defense of Sirius.  It doesn't matter whether we
> on the outside think Sirius would have been a good parental role
> for Harry.  It only matters that to Harry, his one adult figure,
> the one who was his, his godfather, his parents' best friend, not
> his best friend's family, not his headmaster, but his only 
> parental figure ... had just died, and now this person who had
> ignored him all year is telling him terrible things about that
> parental figure.  Ouch.

Jen R:  Rationally, logically, what Pippin said makes complete 
sense: the time had arrived and perhaps was overdue for the 
Explanation. Dumbledore had one shot to explain to Harry not only 
the events of that year but the reason behind many of the events of 
Harry's entire life and he needed to get it right or risk having 
Harry turn away from him. No pressure there.

Emotionally though, I feel like Sherry and Alla. Dumbledore seemed 
distant and harsh, talking in a way he'd never talked to Harry 
before. At a time when I *most* expected words of compassion, the 
Dumbledore well ran dry. 

And therein lies my own interpretation of that speech--Dumbledore's 
well *had* run dry. Even if he should have had more to give Harry in 
the form of compassion and a few nice philosophical phrases to set 
everything right, he couldn't do it. Since we don't get to see 
anything from his perspective it's impossible to know this, but just 
as Harry felt he couldn't stand to go forward, Dumbledore may have 
not wanted to go forward either. Just as Harry wanted to give up on 
being Prophecy Boy, I think Dumbledore had a rare moment of wishing 
he wasn't the one who had heard the prophecy and taken on the 
sometimes very difficult task of keeping Harry safe and preparing 
him for his future. 

Dumbledore had also just experienced a heart-stopping moment in the 
DOM when he realized he did not have the power to save Harry. It was 
one thing to hear about the graveyard, but to see Harry possessed by 
Voldemort and believe in that instant someone he'd grown to love was 
going to die a horrible and painful death....well, I don't think 
Snape was lying that Dumbledore was shaken by the DOM but it wasn't 
because of the duel with Voldemort, it was because he thought for a 
moment he'd lost Harry.

I didn't see HBP as Dumbledore reversing that speech so much as a 
renewed sense of hope that he DID have something to offer Harry by 
sharing information about Voldemort's past and attempting to locate 
and destory the horcruxes even at the risk of dying in the process. 

In the end, I guess I don't want that speech to go away or be 
edited. It was raw, hard to hear, and made me feel uneasy but it was 
a 'darkest hour before the dawn' moment that seemed right for the 
transition between the dark and depressing tone of OOTP and the more 
hopeful and active themes in HBP. 

Jen R.