Dumbledore on the Dursleys in OotP (LONG)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 151540

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "PJ" <midnightowl6 at ...> wrote:
>
<SNIP>
> 
> Sorry but I don't buy that for a minute because Sirius was the only 
> one who, from day one, could've really upset all of Dumbledore's 
> careful plans concerning Harry.   In a way I think it was a bit of 
a 
> relief to Dumbledore when Sirius died.  
> 
<SNIP> 

> He didn't wish him harm, he just wanted him safely tucked away and 
> out of his hair... And once he died Dumbledore had to make sure 
that 
> Harry didn't make a martyre of him and get off task.  
> 
> To me it was all pretty cold on Dumbledore's part, but he had a job 
> to do and he did it well enough to where Harry quickly puts Sirius 
> behind him and is soon ready to pick up the Horcrux hunt... 
> 

And herein is why that particular scene was a disastrous failure on 
JKR's part.  I don't agree with much of anything in the post, but I 
do acknowledge that the final scene of OOTP can be read that way.  
Indeed, simply on the face of it, and divorced from HBP, that is 
perhaps the most plausible way to read the scene.

And herein is why, to use Carol's terminology, JKR "bowed to 
criticism" when it came to how she portrayed Dumbledore.  JKR was 
simply not getting the message across very clearly.  OOTP in general 
was a self-indulgent, neurotic, and sloppily-written book, but 
nowhere as much as in its conclusion -- i.e. Sirius' death and DD's 
reaction/explanation to the events of the year.  That JKR recognized 
this and tried to mend it is not surprising, although her method of 
doing so, outside of DD's confrontation with the Dursleys, was 
largely to pretend that OOTP and all its issues did not exist, which 
elicited several guffaws of derision.


Lupinlore