Grindlewald; the Floo Network

[richter_kuymal]

No: HPFGUIDX 147598

---> Lupinlore:
> "If we are to look at anyone as a model for how JKR thinks "dark 
> lords" should be dealt with, it would have to be DD.  And yet all 
> the evidence we have is that he killed Grindlewald.  We may find 
> out that isn't the truth.  However, for the present, it seems that 
> he literally killed the man.  He didn't redeem him."
> 
> BAW:
> Where in canon does it say that Dumbledore killed Grindlewald?  
> It does say that he DEFEATED him, but that is hardly the same 
> thing.

== While BAW is right (the text is "defeated") I have a problem with 
that.  If DD did NOT kill Grindlewald, then he is 
expecting/requiring others to do things he himself would not do -- 
he TELLS Harry that Harry MUST kill Voldemort.  He doesn't give him 
any "you must destroy Voldemort" or "I don't know of any other 
solution, but there may be one" answers to HARRY.  However 
much "choices" are a critical part of this series, the choices 
people make are always constrained by WHAT THEY KNOW as much as by 
what they want or what they believe.  If there's a way to destroy 
Voldemort and let "Tom Riddle" survive, DD does not give any such 
indication to Harry -- even in the form of "there might be one but I 
don't know what it would be".  

If he doesn't truly believe in the prophesy (it is only true because 
LV has made it true) then there is no reason for DD not to try to 
kill LV himself.  If he can, then the prophesy is either false or 
the wording can be interpeted to have the prophesy fufilled (if he'd 
killed LV at the MOM, Harry would have been "in proximity" and 
so "at the hand of" LV).  If he can't kill LV, he has at least not 
asked others to do things he himself finds too repugnant to do.

DD has two major problems for me. One is his requiring others to act 
for him (including killing, if he truly never did it himself) and 
the other is his "not telling people" thing.  A lot of what happens 
happens because of a lack of information.  If Harry goes into the 
maze believing he needs to help prevent the theft of the SS, in part 
it is because DD and others didn't sit him down and tell him "We 
have set a trap for LV and it's ok for you not to do anything".  
Hiding truth and information from even the young is not the best 
method of dealing with difficult issues.  If DD and others set the 
SS "obstacle course" up as much for testing Harry as for catching LV 
(which is my belief), then again, DD is at least remiss in not 
cluing Harry in at the end.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the 
whole issue at GH didn't occur because DD was setting up YET 
ANOTHER "trap" for LV.  Using people as pawns seems to be his 
methodology.  It is only worse if he is using them to do things he 
himself would never do. 

If DD would "never" have killed Grindlewald and won't try to kill LV 
(MOM fight being the most recent opportunity), he is asking others 
to sacrifice THEIR souls, etc in ways he himself is not. That makes 
it a little hard to believe in a truly "good" DD.  

PAR (who apologizes if this is a bit rambling)