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

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 158687

Julie:
Maybe you think he's *playing* God because you are MAKING him out to be God.
Especially this idea that it was Dumbledore's responsibility to keep Sirius
out of Azkaban in the first place. WHY is this Dumbledore's responsibility??
He's the Headmaster at Hogwarts, he knows Sirius from when he was a student
but we have no indication that he knew Sirius any better or had any closer
relationship with him than he does with, say, Dean Thomas. Why would he be
expected to have some great insight into Sirius, so great he automatically
suspects or knows that Sirius *isn't* guilty of betraying the Potter's
secret, when every single bit of evidence points directly to that guilt?

Dumbledore isn't judge, jury or executioner in this matter, he's nothing
more than one witness who told the only truth he knew, that James had told
him Sirius was the secret-keeper. But the fact that he didn't go beyond
that, didn't step out of his own position as Headmaster at Hogwarts and take
over the WW court system and take on the case of one student out of
thousands he's watched pass through Hogwarts who was to all appearances very
guilty of the crime, makes
*Dumbledore* the guilty one. And isn't it just too bad someone who actually
KNEW Sirius well, McGonagall, Lupin, perhaps other former student friends,
apparently didn't bother to vouch for him--or more accurately, BELIEVED he
was guilty? Yet Dumbledore should have some sort of omniscient realization
of Sirius's innocence. God, indeed.

Of course Dumbledore isn't God, not even close. He can't stop Fudge, he
can't stop Umbridge, he can't even maintain his position at Hogwarts when
politics rears its ugly head, but he should have saved Sirius from his
ignominous fate? Uh huh.




Sherry now:

But we're not talking about the Dumbledore of the Fudge era.  We're talking
about the Dumbledore who was able to get his spy off from any deserved
charges simply by his own word.  That *is* power and playing God.  So, why
couldn't that same powerful, god playing so-called epitome of goodness have
bothered to take two minutes to ask Sirius what happened?  

There is still no canon to support your assertion that James told Dumbledore
Sirius was the secret keeper.  What Minerva and others say in a pub 12 years
later is hearsay, not evidence.  As far as we know, Dumbledore never
actually said, James came and told me that Sirius would be their secret
keeper.  

As for why didn't Minerva and Lupin do something ... same damn reason they
believed Snape was DDM.  Because Dumbledore said so.  They were quick to
jump ship on that one when they heard Harry's words.  They didn't argue very
strongly against it.  But at least, Harry was an eye witness.  Dumbledore
may not be God, and he may not even think he plays God, but his followers
certainly treat him as if he is God.  And if they do, he has allowed it to
be so.

There's no way around it for me.  In the case of Sirius black, Dumbledore
acted unfairly and cruelly.  And he acted completely differently to a true
death eater, Snape.  Why did Dumbledore so quickly jump to the defense of
the one, and cruelly leave the other to rot in a fate probably worse than
death?  He held all the cards, and he played them the way that best fit his
plan.

Sirius did not relinquish guardianship, as far as we know.  All he did was
let Hagrid take Harry to his relatives, for what Sirius might have thought
would be a temporary stay.  Why is this suddenly the fault of the innocent
victim?  Only one person was pulling all those strings.

There were two young men, whose fates Dumbledore sealed in that time.  One
was guilty and was allowed to go free and unpunished.  One was innocent and
was sent to prison, with dementors of all things, to rot forever, as far as
anyone knew.  This does not seem fair or like the actions of a very good
man.  If Dumbledore is the epitome of goodness, and as a human he has made
the biggest mistakes of all, by his own words, then he has a lot to answer
for.  Only he will never answer for it now.  But he, Sirius, and Harry at
least have paid the price, too great a price.

Since DD is the one who was involved in all of this, his actions can stand a
little scrutiny and questioning.  I am never willing to take someone's word,
even a book character in an unfinished mystery, that we are just supposed to
accept a character's actions as being right, just because that character
does them.  That is one of the flaws in the Order perhaps.  They all obey
and believe and yes, even worship DD, without stopping to think if he's
right or wrong or justified in what he does.  DD says it, so it must be so.
That is a dangerous way to live, I think, and the characters are going to
have to live with the consequences of that unswerving belief and never
questioning in the future, I think.


Sherry