[HPforGrownups] Re: In defense of DD WAS musings on Dumbledore - Even Longer

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 158655

Tonks:
> First it seems to me that people blame DD for the actions of
> others.  DD is not responsible for the choices of Vernon, for
> example.  DD did what he needed to do to keep Harry alive. We can
> debate till the cows come home that he had other options.  I think
> when JKR writes that this was the only choice for DD to make, it
> *was* the only choice.  And as Diana says DD expects the best of
> people.  Would you prefer him to be a judgmental, see the flaw in
> everyone and expect them to screw up type of person?  I think not.

Magpie:
I don't think it's really blaming DD for the actions of others. It's giving 
him some responsibility for his own actions, especially since he's got so 
much more power than anyone else.  Dumbledore's actions don't take place in 
a vacuum,.  Every character has a reason for what they do.

Tonks:
> As to the notion that Sirius would have been a good guardian, I have
> my doubts about that.  Harry was a baby, I just don't see Sirius
> taking care of a baby.  I suspect that Lily and James made Sirius
> Harry's Godfather because Sirius was James' best friend, not
> necessary because they thought that Sirius would one day really have
> to care for Harry.
For all we know, Lily might actually have wanted
> Petunia to care for Harry.  Lily like DD saw the good in everyone
> too, and I think that she may have expected her sister to love and
> care for a child in her care.

Magpie:
See, but first you say it's good that DD is not judgmental and sees the best 
in people (and there's no indication he did that much with the Dursleys) but 
then you go on to defend his actions by saying Sirius was a poor choice for 
a parent because he was a young man with no experience taking care of 
babies.  And then go even further by suggesting that DD was the one truly 
following Lily's wish that her sister who hates Harry was the one she really 
wanted to raise him.  Seems to me these types of considerations do matter if 
you'd like Dumbledore to be on the right side of them. But I think canon 
indicates these things were not a priority.

I say, let the Dursleys have full responsibility for their actions in 
mistreating a child (which was fully their choice) and let Dumbledore have 
full responsibilty for all of his actions and inactions that had bad 
forseeable consequences.  If putting Harry with the Dursleys was the best 
choice--which I'm willing to accept--that doesn't change the bad parts of 
that choice.  Nor does Harry's admirable reaction to those bad things.

Part of being a good leader is having good counselors.  DD by everyone's 
admission feels he's beyond having counselors and must make all his 
decisions by himself.  In this case, overriding all known wishes for Harry's 
upbringing as a boy in favor of magical protection for a person he planned 
to have defeat Voldemort in the future.

-m