Who is Harry's guardian? WAS: Re: Identifying with Muggles -

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 158399


> 
> Julie:
> Dumbledore says James told him Sirius was the secret-keeper.
> I suppose the validity of that statement depends on whether you as 
the
> reader take Dumbledore at his word or not.
> 
> 
> 
> Sherry again:
> 
> Can you point me to the canon, or quote it for me?  Honestly, I've 
read POA
> many, many times, but I don't remember Dumbledore saying anything 
like,
> James told me that Sirius was the secret keeper.  I remember it as 
him
> saying something like I believed Sirius was the secret keeper, or I 
was led
> to believe it or something like that.  


Julie:
Steve quoted the relevant POA paragraphs in an earlier post--

"So Black was the Potters' Secret-Keeper?" whispered
Madam Rosmerta.

"Naturally," said Professor McGonagall. "James Potter
told Dumbledore that Black would die rather than tell
where they were, that Black was planning to go into
hiding himself... and yet, Dumbledore remained worried.
I remember him offering to be the Potters' Secret-Keeper
himself."

My apologies for saying Dumbledore stated this as fact,
when it was actually McGonagall relaying Dumbledore's 
discussion with Dumbledore. There is also the following 
quote from POA:

"It is your turn to listen, and I beg you will not
interrupt me, because there is very little time," he
(Dumbledore) said quietly. "There is not a shred of proof
to support Black's story, except your word -- and the
word of two thirteen-year-old wizards will not convince
anybody. A street full of eyewitnesses swore they saw
Sirius murder Pettigrew. I myself gave evidence to the
Ministry that Sirius had been the Potters' Secret-
Keeper."

And I can't believe Dumbledore would give evidence that
Sirius had been the Potters' Secret-Keeper if he hadn't
heard the words directly from James Potter, as implied by
McGonagall's statement. I suppose one could still call it
"heresay" but I don't really doubt McGonagall or Dumbledore.


Sherry:
> And of course, if Dumbledore hadn't done what he did, the books 
would be far
> different, but it's difficult to believe that placing a helpless 
child in an
> abusive situation could ever be in the child's best interest, no 
matter what
> else was going on.  It's actually why I don't or try not to think 
of this
> aspect of the stories very much, because I like Dumbledore, and 
none of the
> beginnings of Harry's life with the Dursleys paint the greatest 
wizard of
> all time or the epitome of goodness in a very good light for me.  
Letting an
> innocent man rot in a terrible prison and letting a child live in a 
home of
> abuse and no love makes me very unhappy to contemplate.  So, I 
normally try
> to avoid it altogether!
> 
> Sherry, who is thankful she can laugh at herself in such cases.
>

Julie:
I agree that the whole situation doesn't bear too much close
examination of a logical nature. But again, few novels do,
especially novels that need to provide unlikely scenarios to
set up a plot. So it's really up to the reader. Either Dumbledore
placed Harry with the Dursleys because he genuinely believed the
alternative to placing Harry in an abusive situation was a very
real possibility of death (and in retrospect what abuse Harry did
suffer was *relatively* mild, certainly better than dying, IMO),
or he placed Harry in an abusive situation when there was actually
a more suitable alterative, thus he's a cold, manipulative jerk. 

Equally, Dumbledore believed the strongly damning evidence that
Sirius was guilty of betraying the Potters and didn't know Sirius
well enough to doubt the solid evidence he possessed (though 
McGonagall should have known Sirius far better as his head of 
house and didn't seem to doubt the evidence either), or Dumbledore
just didn't care and was more than content to let a likely innocent
man rot in Azkaban if it served his ultimate purposes. 

Good man who makes the best decisions he can given the 
circumstances and admits his own human fallibility when his
decisions sometimes turn out to be in error...or master
manipulator with a block of ice for a heart? JKR has told us
how she means Dumbledore to come across, but as I believe 
Lupinlore said, no author can tell any individual reader how
to interpret his or her words. That's left to us. 

Julie, who chooses to stick with the epitome of goodness 
interpretation of Dumbledore ;-)