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

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 153370

Lupinlore:
> DD's attitude toward Draco is, I have to admit, even more of a
> migraine-inducer than his attitude toward Harry.  If he believes
> Draco is being bullied and that Draco is a reasonably competent,
> rational human being, then why on Earth does DD let Draco run around
> committing attempted murder?  If he thinks Draco is basically a
> screw-up, that would explain why he isn't surprised that Draco keeps
> getting the worst of things.**  But it still doesn't explain why he
> treats the matter of Draco's mission with such kid-gloves.  After
> all, if he thinks Draco is essentially incompetent then letting the
> kid run around Hogwarts on a murder mission is like giving a chimp a
> loaded gun and letting it run loose.

Magpie:
I think DD's perspective on this matter goes back to the one that gets him 
into trouble (or not) most often: he's an old man looking down on the 
squabblings of kids (I'm speaking first here about Harry and Draco, 
obviously, not the attempted murder).  People are quick to slot Snape and 
James into the "correct" roles with Harry and Draco--originally in PS people 
assumed Snape was Draco to Harry's James, then after OotP people though the 
twist was that Snape was Harry to James' Draco, the key always being for 
their to be one victim and one bully rather than two kids hating each other.

I think Dumbledore is unintentionally misleading back in PS/SS and that when 
he uses Malfoy as an example to explain how Snape and James felt about each 
other he's not intending to cast Snape or James in the role of victim or 
bully.  I don't think he thinks Harry is bullying Draco or that he's got any 
reason to intervene himself in that fight.  It seems more like he sees two 
boys who hate each other and doesn't interfere.  Not that this is 
necessarily the best thing to do--would it really be too interfering to have 
sat these kids down and forced them to work something out back when they 
were 11 instead of letting it escalate?  But DD never does that (it would 
screw up the plot).  Altercations between Harry and Draco, I suspect 
Dumbledore thinks, are taken care of by the boys themselves or their Heads 
of Houses.  He knows Draco's background enough and I'm sure knows enough of 
both his and Harry's personality to not think that Harry's just beating the 
kid up for kicks.  Dumbledore doesn't interfere when Harry or James hexes 
people in the hallways and so probably lets stuff like that go in general, 
whether it's Draco leg-locking Neville as a first year, Harry making Goyle's 
toenails grow in sixth or the entire school levicorpus-ing each other in the 
Marauders era.

Now, as to the murder plot I think we actually are seeing Dumbledore put 
students at risk as potential collateral damage in his war.  I actually 
don't think it's hard to believe that JKR's "epitome of goodness" would have 
told the Weasleys and the Bells that their kids were casualties in a war had 
either of them died in HBP--he might have taken blame on himself for not 
protecting them, but given what I've seen of Dumbledore I could easily 
imagine him presenting it that way--and still not revealing that he knew 
about what Draco was doing.

DD starts the year knowing Draco's going to try to kill him.  Perhaps he's 
originally thinking that puts no one but himself in danger.  He puts Snape 
on the case to try to figure out what he's doing and head him off.  Not only 
does Snape not know about the Cabinet plot (DD chooses not to follow up on 
Harry's warnings about it) but he doesn't know about either the mead of the 
necklace beforehand.  Both Snape and DD seem to know that Draco was behind 
both of those attempts afterwards.  Once Katie is hurt DD can no longer 
claim that he believes Draco's murder attempts are only a danger to himself 
and DD.  He's seen that having a panicked teenager essentially shutting his 
eyes and hurling deadly things into the school is a danger--a chimp with a 
gun, as you said.  He can't possibly claim once Katie is hurt (even if she 
probably wouldn't have been if she hadn't argued with Leanne) that he's got 
things under control. He seems to basically be admitting that hopefully any 
murder attempt can be reversed if not prevented.  From that moment, if not 
before, Dumbledore decides to gamble with the lives of others to stick to 
his own plan with Draco.

As a strategy, this may very well prove to be a gamble that pays off, but I 
think it is a strategy of war, not a Headmaster protecting his students.

-m