DD as manipulator? A long response.

[Mari]

No: HPFGUIDX 174451

This topic seems to be causing a great deal of angst on the list. 
Since 
I share Carol's revulsion to the idea of DD as a cold hearted 
manipulator,  I'd like to offer my reading of the situation in 
response 
to eggplant's and lupinlore's posts on DD as a Godfather type figure 
who led Snape, Harry or both 'like a pig to the slaughter' for the 
sake 
of some kind of abstract 'greater good'.

For me the key to reading the meaning of DD's actions is contained in 
events in the previous books, as much as DH itself.

Let's begin with Chamber of Secrets. This is arguably the first 
possible point in JKR's narrative timeline where we can assume that 
DD 
at least suspected that Riddle had made horcruxes. This idea is 
supported by JKR's statements, at the time that HBP came out, that 
much 
material that  was only included in HBP in the end had originally 
been 
in CoS. The discovery of the diary and its destruction is a major 
piece of the puzzle about what happened when the Potters were killed, 
and why Harry survived, and the beginning of DD putting the various 
pieces together in his mind.


Fast forward to Goblet of Fire. Voldemort has been reborn, and DD 
finds 
out he has used Harry's blood. The 'gleam of triumph' in his eyes 
upon 
being told this information which was so heavily discussed in the 
group 
at the time, seems to me an indication that DD knew or strongly 
suspected that by using Harry's blood, Voldemort had sealed his own 
downfall without knowing it, because Voldemort now shared the 
protection of Lily's blood, and thus if he attempted to kill Harry 
the 
curse would rebound on him as before. Tom Riddle, as usual, has 
proved 
short sighted.

Through book five and six, though I can't pin down the timing 
precisely, I assume that DD was trying to find confirmation that the 
horcruxes had been made (which he got when Harry gave him Slughhorn's 
memory.)At some point before this he has discovered one horcrux 
unwittingly, though his interest in it was because it was the 
resurrection ring, as we now know. 

Thus, in book six, DD knows, or possibly guesses, the following:

1)Though Harry shares part of Voldemort's soul, Voldemort ALSO has a 
part of Harry's, albeit in a different way, through the blood 
protection. 

2) Harry has to be willing to die for the piece of Voldemort's soul 
that is lodged inside him to be destroyed.

3) Because Voldemort and Harry share the same blood, Voldemort, when 
he 
attempts to kill Harry, is also killing a part of himself.

4) In order for the protective function of the blood sacrifice to 
operate, Harry must be willing to die for the sake of others, just as 
his mother was willing to die for his sake. 

5)In order for this to play out as it should, Harry has to know that 
he must be willing to die for the sake of defeating 
Voldemort, and also that he must allow Voldemort to do it without 
fighting back. Unfortunately, this being 
the case, Harry CANNOT have the whole truth about the blood 
protection before he has completed his task.


Looking at what DD says to Harry in OotP, I see plenty of evidence 
that 
DD knows these things, and feels TERRIBLE at the thought of what 
Harry 
must undergo. He explicitly refers to the conflict that he is 
undergoing, and now at the end of DH we know it was a conflict 
between 
three competing things; one, Harry's right to know the truth, two, 
the 
necessity, at this stage, to NOT give him the full truth if he is to 
have ANY chance to survive the battle with Voldemort, for the reasons 
set out above, and three, his own love for Harry and the conflict 
this 
causes him at seeing Harry be caught up in things beyond anyone's 
control.

In HBP we see DD move towards his death with great dignity and 
compassion, for Harry, Draco, and we now know, Snape.


We learn in DH that DD has made some terrible choices in his past, 
and 
that he has spent the rest of his life trying to atone for them. The 
things that the potion in the cave in HBP made him see are explained. 
My feeling is that the potion makes the drinker re live their worst 
memory. For DD this is the fact that he caused the death of his 
sister.

If DD has such intense horror and regret at his role in his sister's 
death, if he is pleading with Snape to go through with what he has to 
do at his own death because he KNOWS how hard this task is for the 
man 
who he has trusted more than any other,and if his internal conflicts 
about Harry's role in Voldemort's defeat are also made evident in 
OotP, 
these things need to be borne in mind when reading DD's overall role  
as revealed in DH. For me the textual evidence over the series as  
whole shows the reader that DD, like Snape, has made choices he 
regrets 
in the past, and has spent the remainder of his life working to atone 
for this mistake, no matter how hard it may be for him personally. 

A Godfather figure would not have acknowledged the difficulty, or 
felt 
any conflict inside himself, about what he had asked Harry and Snape 
to 
be prepared to do on his behalf.

As for Snape being a 'pig to the slaughter' I personally don't see 
this 
at all. Yes, things didn't go to plan, as DD admits in the Kings 
Cross 
chapter, but what was the plan in the first place? Snape didn't have 
to 
DIE in order to become Master of the Elder Wand, it was VOLDEMORT who 
thought so. For me a big part of the impact of Snape's death scene 
lies 
in precisely the fact that he did NOT die as a part of some grand pre 
arranged plan. Voldemort, being who he was, struck Snape down without 
a 
shred of mercy, compassion or remorse, for no purpose but his own 
ends. 
DD's sorrow for Snape's death, like his compassion for Snape at the 
moment of his own death, and his compassion for Harry, which is what 
makes it so difficult for DD to do what he must (i.e withhold the 
whole 
truth from Harry, and some of the whole truth from Snape)for me read 
as 
very genuine. 

Unlike Voldemort DD sees those who serve him, at great risk to their 
own lives, as human beings, and this is what causes him pain. He has 
learned, as a result of his experience with the Deathly Hallows, to 
be wary of putting the greater good over individual human beings, and 
throughout the series we see him questioning his choices because of 
these  conflicting interests. 

Just my twopence worth on this issue which I hope makes some kind of 
sense :-)