Dumbledore's Love

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 147662

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "johnbowman19" <jhnbwmn at ...> 
wrote:
"Lord Voldemort's Request". 
> We all know what happens in this chapter so I will skip to my 
> question to save time. What did Voldemort mean by (paraphrasing)"

> Your famous pronouncement that love is greater than my flavor of 
> magic
"?
> When I read this I took it literally meaning that somehow 
Dumbledore announced to the whole wizarding world that love was 
indeed a magic  that could conquer all other forms of magic. I 
imagined him getting on the wizarding wireless network after his 
grand defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald to discuss his battle 
and making such a  statement. So then my question becomes what did 
you all think of this statement?
(Snip)
> And wondering about the life of Dumbledore has led me to another 
> question of his character: How does Dumbledore know what love is? 
(snip) I would argue that Dumbledore never knew true love because to 
> have true love he would have had to find his equal. (snip) but 
could he ever know the love that wills one to bind oneself to 
another for life? (snip)And if his idea of love did not include 
> the love a man for a woman could his whole idea of love be 
lacking, thus making his pronouncement hallow? Meaning Harry's 
greatest power would come up wanting in the final confrontation with 
Voldemort because Dumbledore misunderstood love.
----------

Tonks:

I just reread the part in HBP that you have referred to.  At the 
time of my first reading I had interpreted that to mean just that it 
was well know what DD believed. I never thought of him having 
actually made some famous speech about Love. But now that you have 
pointed that out, maybe he did.

As far as DD having had to have loved a woman and been married in 
order to understand love, I don't think that is true. After all look 
at the number of marriages that end in divorce. So I don't think 
that you can point to marital love as the highest form of love.  I 
am not a parent, but I have been told by those who are, and in 
remembering my own parent's devotion to me, I think that one of the 
highest forms of love is that of a parent for a child.  Beyond even 
that is the type of Love that DD believes in and that we saw in Lily 
and IMO in DD on the tower. The very highest form of Love is 
sacrificial love, and not just for those that we love by nature, but 
for those that by nature we might hate.  

Scott Peck wrote in the "Road Less Traveled", that Love is not a 
feeling, it is a "choice".  This idea fits in with the theme 
of "Choice", which we know is a central point in the HP series.

I think that DD's highest form of Love is that which Peck 
defines. 'Love is a choice that we make to place the welfare of 
another above our own'.  Love of a man for a woman is "affection", 
since it involves feeling and not a conscious "Choice".  
Certainly `falling in love' is not a choice at all.  IMO it is a 
form of temporary insanity.  ;-)  And people `fall out' of it too.

The type of Love that is studied in the special room at the MoM is 
the type that DD believes in and lives. It is a very powerful type 
of Love, one not many have.  But we do see this in Harry too. It is 
part of his "saving people thing". In the end I think that JKR will 
show us that it is possible for everyone to have that type of Love. 
It is not an easy thing, but it is, in the teaching of DD, the right 
thing. And this type of Love, lived by the majority of people will 
change our Muggle world.

Tonks_op
DD's most loyal servant.