Blood protection/ Dumbledore and Harry LONG

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 158496

Betsy Hp: 
> > I guess I just don't see that Dumbledore has all that much to 
> > answer to for leaving Harry at the Dursleys.  It was the place 
> > where Harry was the safest.  I expect any loving person would 
> > have done the same thing.  Or lived with Harry ending up in 
> > Bellatrix's capable hands because of their unwillingness to make 
> > the hard call.
<snip>
> > In such a crisis situation it was Dumbledore's *duty* to get 
> > involved.
 
Alla:
> Is the idea that WW works as medieval society? For protection they 
> give themselves as sort of servants? I just don't see any proof 
> that Potters indeed were Dumbledore's clients. Do we see that 
> Potters came and asked for that protection? In fact, I see quite 
> the opposite - they refused DD's offer to be their SC, so I do not 
> think that Dumbledore had a right or duty to get involved.
> 
> Susan suggested to me offlist that it is sort of DD world in Jo 
> mind in a sense. He gets involved because he is **it** of the 
> sort. ( I am not misinterpreting you, right? :))
> 
> That is actually much easier to swallow for me as metathinking 
> reason, but Jo specifically said for example that DD is no Christ, 
> I don't know, I guess I can still consider him to be the **it** in 
> the general philosophical sense. 


SSSusan:

::takes deep breath::

Oh, man.  I'm so not sure I want to get into this.  As I told Alla 
today, I am sick to death of the DD-Dursleys discussion. ;-)  But 
here goes.

I am in total agreement with the comments I've left in here from 
Betsy.  I think -- have always thought -- that DD made the tough 
choice but the best choice he could have made in that desperate 
time.  I know it didn't work out perfectly, but why did things play 
out this way?  Well, because JKR needed for Harry Potter to grow up 
in a cupboard under the stair on Privet Drive.  I mean, that's the 
world she was building for Our Hero, the background she intended for 
him to have when we first meet him at age 11. Having Sirius take off 
with Baby Harry just wasn't the path JKR wanted to head down.  So 
why did DD make the choice he did?  Because somebody needed to set 
this all in motion.  Yeah, that's flip, but I think it's the 
situation.

Anyway, Alla pressed me for why it was *Dumbledore's* choice to 
make, and again, I rather flip-ly (but also seriously) said, "Maybe 
because DD is 'It' in JKR's world."  Maybe that's a cop-out answer, 
but I mean, truly, perhaps he is!  

He's the "epitome of goodness," in her own words.  He's long been 
the Headmaster at Hogwarts.  He's Supreme Mugwump of the 
International Confederation of Wizards and Chief Warlock of the 
Wizengamot.  He has been asked more than once to run for Minister 
for Magic.  He defeated Grindelwald and is the only person Voldemort 
ever feared.  He's the leader of the Order of the Phoenix at the 
time of the Potters' deaths.  He's the MAIN MAN in the Wizarding 
World at this time.  So, with Harry's parents gone, with the 
godfather/guardian suspected as the one who betrayed those parents, 
who else would there be to make this choice?

Now, I realize that some might say, "But what if the question is not 
so literal as "Why DID DD make the choice?," but more "What RIGHT 
did DD have to make it?"  I still answer the same way!  He made it 
because he was the Main Man in the WW and he is used to making 
choices, used to making decisions, used to leading (...and clearly 
many, many people respect him for those choices, decisions & 
skills).  But he also made this choice -- had the "right" to make 
it -- because for JKR, he is the kind of man who has earned the 
right to make choices involving the leadership of and, yes, maybe 
even the fate of, the WW.

Before anyone jumps down my throat for that last bit, I'm not saying 
everyone around here agrees that he should be in that position, nor 
that many might not see it as quite presumptuous of him to have 
taken those kinds of things on.  I'm just saying that my gut 
reaction is that *Herself* thinks that this was DD's proper role.  
He'll make mistakes (not the least of which is just assuming Sirius' 
guilt), he'll regret how some of it played out (not the least of 
which is the Dursleys' eventual treatment of Harry), but I think 
we're supposed to understand that it was DD's place to make the 
choices here.

IOW, I don't think JKR expected quite so many people to think so 
hard about alternatives to having "Epitome of Goodness" Albus 
Dumbledore make the call the night of Godric's Hollow.  I think it 
was a "given" in her mind that that's just where the story started.

Siriusly Snapey Susan, 
who knows someone had to make the choice that night and who's glad 
DD was the one