Draco and Dumbledore

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 160143

 
Alla:

Not that I think that Dumbledore has a right to put less  weight in 
protecting the lifes of innocent students than somebody's who did  
such idiotic thing as taking UV  IMO or somebody who is running  
around trying to kill him, but we do not even know for sure that  
Dumbledore knows that Snape and Malfoy are vital for destroying  
Voldemort.

They will be somehow, I am pretty sure of that ,but JKR  
knows that, Dumbledore does not IMO ( unless you are buying 
Dumbledore  making long complicated plans with Snape well in advance, 
which I do not  buy).
 
 


Julie:
I believe Dumbledore DOES know Snape is vital to destroying
Voldemort, and also to keeping Hogwarts safe for the students
during the year. I believe he thinks (rightly) that Snape will also
be more valuable to the cause against Voldemort from here on,  able
to infiltrate from the inside, and to help Harry if not  defeat Voldemort,
than at least get into a *position* to defeat Voldemort. Little is  more
valuable than a spy right in the midst of an enemy after all. That's
all part of the reason Dumbledore chose Snape's life over his  own
(if his "Severus, please..." was a plea for Snape to save himself
rather than dying from not fulfilling the UV, as I think it  was).
 
As for Draco, that's a little touchier. But Draco is a Malfoy, from a
leading Slytherin family, thus he would have a lot of sway  among
the other Slytherin students. He's the most likely candidate within
that house to facilitate a reconciliation between the houses  (something
JKR has implied is coming). I don't see why Dumbledore couldn't 
easily figure that out, and realize that turning Draco might just be
what unites Hogwarts in the fight against Voldemort. Add that to  his
concern for *any* student, then Dumbledore has both personal and
strategic reasons for protecting Draco. 
 
At the very least, that Dumbledore is aware of both Snape and 
even Draco's potentially vital importance to defeating Voldemort is  
as reasonable a conclusion from canon as that he was unaware of
how vital they each could be in their individual ways. Even more
reasonable if you consider Dumbledore to be the very wise and
war-experienced wizard he is supposed to be. (Funny how that
works ;-)
 
I also agree with Carol that Dumbledore DID protect Hogwarts and
its students. Snape stopped Draco from trying making any more
attempts on Dumbledore's life using indirect methods, which are 
the kind that end up getting others killed. And Dumbledore had
Order members staged to intercept the DEs *even* while he 
considered the possibility of DEs infiltrating Hogwarts to be 
nearly nil. He didn't take any chances with his students lives
that night, and those DEs did NOT get access to the students, 
except those from DA who *deliberately* joined the fight. At no
time--after Draco's early indirect attempts--was an innocent 
student in serious danger. Meaning Dumbledore did NOT put 
more weight on protecting Draco and Snape over the students. 
He did his very best to protect them all, and he succeeded.
 
Julie, very sorry that Alla, Sherry and others have lost their 
faith in Dumbledore, but seeing no convincing canon evidence
yet that requires losing that faith. 


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