looong - musings on Dumbledore

[Janette]

No: HPFGUIDX 158565

So the impression I am getting, as a newbie to this list, and I am sure you
will correct me if I'm wrong (!) is that we are generally convinced that
Dumbledore, while being the greatest wizard of his time, was also arrogant
in his decision making, particularly with regard to the placement of Harry
with the Dursleys.

I think this is a correct assessment, and as I mentioned before, I think he
simply used Harry as a pawn in his longterm game plan (possibly assisted in
this game by his numerous silver instruments).  I am happy with this
assessment, and am in awe of JKR's writing which at first reading convinces
us that Dumbledore is a Fairy Godfather type of wizard.  This, of course, is
because we see him through student Harry's eyes, when he is twinkling, and a
little anarchic, as well as letting rule infractions pass unpunished.

But DD at the time of Harry's AKing is not like this.  (And I know you all
reached this point a long time ago - please bear with me while I catch
up...)  We know he is more than equal to LV, and that he heads the Order.
We don't see him (as far as I know) in relation to any student other than
Tom.  (Well, there is Lupin, but he may have weighed up the merits of having
a werewolf on his side, rather than agin, and made a dispassionate decision,
although Lupin's gratitude sees it differently).  His office is up in the
tower and requires a password to reach it.  I would imagine (and this is
where I stray into supposition) that he was a fairly solitary person,
unapproachable to most, and singlemindedly dedicated to defeating LV and the
DEs as he had Grindelwald.

We have no knowledge that he had much, if any, contact with the Marauders or
Lily before they left school and joined the Order.  We don't know if he had
any contact with them even then.  I am thinking of Tonks - she is young and
takes a fairly active part in the new Order, but what real contact does she
have with DD?  I can see him as the lofty head of the school and the Order,
approached only by his most senior Order members, and McGonagall with regard
to school business.  Actual school discipline and Order duties are left to
those lower in the chain.

I would imagine that he appreciated and benefitted from the bravery of James
and Lily, the Longbottoms, etc, but would think he always kept in mind the
Marauders' recklessness and sheer stupidity (the Sirius/Snape episode, for
example) and hence had not yet developed any real respect for them.  When LV
was defeated, he placed Harry with the Dursleys for a number of reasons, all
leading to the same purpose - that of raising DD's champion against LV, as
the prophecy had now been seen to apply to Harry, through LV's choice.
Harry was removed from the wizarding community (and nobody at that time
really knew who was secretly sympathetic to LV), and then there was that
"blood protection" - valid or not.  Plus, leaving Harry with Sirius would
remove Harry from DD's influence.  He must have known that the Dursleys
would raise a Tom Riddle type character - in fact he may have instructed the
Dursleys to do so - *the point being that he would be DD's Tom Riddle*, and
therefore his knight to set against LV.

As to those instructions - I do believe he told them Harry was not safe in,
and should no longer be part of, the wizarding world - that they should
raise him perfectly normally, if brutally (he may have supplied the car
crash cover story), and that with LV gone there was no need for him to ever
know the truth.  (Hence their shock when the owls started arriving...)
Then, if any wizard did spot him in the street and greet him (such as
Dedalus Diggle), Harry would have had no idea what he was talking about...

Where his grand plan went wrong, I think, was that he grew fond of Harry,
which he had never expected to, and that totally changed things - he could
no longer expose Harry and stake him out as bait to bring LV into the open
to be despatched by DD, for example.  (As maybe he did with others in the
past - James and Lily, for example...  Maybe he had believed secretly that
Neville was the chosen one, being from a solid wizarding family, and
although he suggested the fidelius charm, was not scrupulous to ensure it
was performed correctly, or that the Potters' safety was assured).  And
maybe, seeing the good qualities of Harry, he looked back and realised he
should not have dismissed James, Sirius, etc, in the way that he did.

Nothing that hasn't been said before, but just trying to pull it together...
montims


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