DD at the Dursleys: Why do people dislike the scene?

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 158002

> Pippin:
What I saw in that HBP scene was confirmation that Dumbledore
was not in denial about the way the Dursleys treated Harry. He knew
what was going on. It was his choice and he is culpable * if he had a
better one.*
> But we're talking about DD. If it was a choice between an increased
> susceptibility to anxiety and depression or certain death at the 
hands 
> of a psychotic murderer, which would you choose for your child?

Magpie:
This is a total tangent, though.  The question was, for people who 
didn't like the scene, why?  I answered that it did nothing for me, 
that I got nothing out of Dumbledore showing up and teasing the 
Dursleys for fifteen minutes or whatever, and that it didn't give me 
any satisfaction as being a great scene of justice.  So to me it was 
just watching more magical teasing.  

Justfying Dumbledore's motives is an entirely different question, 
and there I go with he left him with the Dursleys because of the 
blood protection--but mostly I consider that just something I have 
to accept for the plot.  I mean, that Harry had to live there for 
the blood protecting, and Dumbledore's making sure he wasn't abused 
as he was was just so that JKR could set up a sympathetic situation 
(Harry's had minor triumphs at the ends of other books thanks to 
wizards).  But I'm not making a case here that Dumbledore should or 
shouldn't have left Harry with the Dursleys, I'm saying why I didn't 
enjoy the scene, as I was asked.  Dumbledore comes off very badly in 
it for me and defenses like this:

Steven1965aaa:

I don't see "teasing". Contrast the Dursleys' behavior with Snape at
Spinner's end who invites Bella and Narci in, invites them to sit,
and offers them a drink even though they show up unannounced and
uninvited. The Dursleys did none of that so DD did it for them. And
unlike Bella and Narci, DD was actually invited into their home - by
Harry who is after all a member of their family. Its true that the
glasses wound up hitting them in the head but as DD said it would 
have been better manners to drink it. I don't see offering someone a 
drink as "teasing" (although the couch thing was a little rough 
around the edges).

Magpie:
...only make him come off worse to me.  Dumbledore's not being any 
more polite than the Dursleys are in the scene, imo.  Snape invites 
Narcissa and Bella in because he chooses to.  "It would have been 
better manners to drink it" reminds me of that thing that bigger 
kids do where they crab a little kid's hand and smack him in the 
head with it and say, "Stop hitting yourself!  Stop hitting 
yourself!  Why are you hitting yourself?"

That's the way the scene comes across to me, which should probably 
explain why I don't particularly like it.  I get why other people do 
like it, this is why I don't like it. Also, I rarely forget reading 
these books that I'm a Muggle, so I'm always going to identify with 
the Muggles to a point in any scene.  I don't like this kind of 
thing, so I don't like the scene.

As for it making Dumbledore human, yeah, it's perfectly human.  
But "it makes him human" in fandom is usually used to refer to bad 
behavior or flaws that a person doesn't want discussed as such.  I 
mean, all the character are human and so are all their flaws.  Which 
I think is also implied by saying it makes him human, like Jesus.  

-m