DD's Knowledge (was Re: Nice vs. Good, honesty,)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 153280

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
<SNIP>
> 

PIPPIN:

> 
> Dumbledore thinks that Harry is the aggressor in the Draco/Harry
> relationship and thinks that Harry will understand that when
> James saved Snape it was the aggressor who saved his
> accustomed victim, not the other way around.  
> 

LUPINLORE:  Then is Harry mistaken about Dumbledore knowing everything 
that goes on at Hogwarts?  That would explain a lot, but if so it 
needs to be made clear.  Dumbledore's knowledge seems to wax and wane 
in awfully suspicious ways.

For instance, let's look at OOTP.  He becomes enraged at Umbridge 
for "manhandling" Marietta, yet takes no action whatsoever to protect 
Harry from the scar quill.  Why?  Why does one thing enrage him into 
the most "proactive" DD we've seen to that point and the other get not 
even a whimper of protest out of him?

Is it because he doesn't know what's going on?  Is it because he is a 
spider trapped in the threads of his own web?  Or is it because JKR 
has a bad habit of sometimes using him as a real character and 
sometimes as a cipher whose only purpose is to push the plot in a 
particular direction?

IRENE:

"I've agreed with every word you've said ... and on a Snape post..."


LUPINLORE:

Miracles do happen, even in this sick and weary world, :-).  The 
question of the extent to which DD is responsible for the Snape/Harry 
dynamic is, I think an important one.  He just can't seem to bring 
himself to be proactive, there.  Even when presented with golden 
opportunities to ratchet down the tension he either lets them slide or 
actually pours gas on the flames (i.e. the situation at the end of PS 
when he seems to actually assure Harry that he needn't feel any 
gratitude or warmth toward Snape or, most obviously, at the end of PoA 
when he seems to be taking glee in reducing Snape to a helpless fury 
over the whole situation).

Why?  Is he simply ignorant of the true dynamic?  Is he a spider 
spinning some sort of strange web of manipulation?  Is he simply a 
plot device who gets good lines from time to time?

I think a defensible premise is one that shows him as somewhat foolish 
but not malicious.  It goes like this:

DD, being 150 years old and somewhat distant and detached by 
temperment, isn't used to dealing with anyone's emotions, including 
his own.  He finds himself caught off guard by his attachment to 
Harry, and lets that color his thinking about a lot of things.

Particularly, DD is serene in his belief that Severus will, over time, 
get over it.  After all, Harry is so obviously not James, and so 
obviously possessed of such good qualities, that ill-will surely has 
to fade over time.  Snape's comment in HBP about Harry being 
DD's "favorite student" is, in this way of thinking, not mere window-
dressing.  It is Snape's genuine, weary, bitter statement of what he 
sees as the obvious state of affairs -- a state which DD has 
communicated to him in various ways.

DD is wrong, of course.  Snape will not get over it.  But we have here 
a VERY common situation.  Person A goes gaga (in the general, not the 
sexual way, please) over person B.  Person C, a 
friend/disciple/employee/acquaintance/whatever of Person A, cannot 
stand Person B.  If C makes the mistake of saying anything, however, 
the response is generally, "oh, you just don't know A very well," 
or "give it time" or -- worst of all -- "look, I know you two don't 
see eye to eye but can't you try to get along with B for my sake?"
Nothing is more likely to produce frustration and resentment.

DD doesn't realize his mistake until OOTP.  At that point, he sees a 
chance with Occlumency.  He was, I think, telling the truth to Harry 
when he explained why he chose Snape for the lessons, but perhaps he 
also thought that this would, AT LAST, lead to Snape getting over his 
bitterness.  He has no choice but to "get to know" Harry now.

But DD runs up against the disaster that the A's of the world always 
face.  That is, C just really, genuinely, DOES NOT LIKE B.  And C 
knows and understands B very well, thank you very much.  And yes, I'll 
try to keep my mouth shut about B in your presence, but don't ask me 
to like B or pretend that I like B.

This is why wise people treat their friendships like a garden.  Some 
flowers take to cross-pollination, most don't.  Sometimes it's a 
wonderful idea to bring your friends together.  Most of the time you 
are well advised to expend energy keeping them apart.

DD tried a disastrous experiment in cross pollination, when he would 
have been better advised to plant a very high hedge.



Lupinlore