The Core of the Elder Wand and other new JKR explanations

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 179734

Mus:
> And when you talk about LV's soul being a stunted, maimed baby, can't
> you see that you're creating an image that's likely to trigger pity? 
> "Unwanted, stuffed out of sight, struggling for breath" - that's what
> he always was, from the beginning, and that's how you chose to end
> him.  Sauron was at least a grown-up.
> 

Pippin:
But Gollum was not. His speech and appearance are childlike:"There
lay the famished skeleton of some child of Men" if memory serves.

Gollum is the creation of Sauron, but psychologically it works the other
way: The Shadow can be seen as a vastly enlarged and distorted 
projection of Gollum's childish desires for satiation and revenge.

LOTR Spoilers below:
If there's anyone who
cares to read LOTR
and hasn't yet,
why are you
reading this instead?

Honestly I don't see a problem here. The reader of LOTR feels sorry
for Gollum even though in the end nothing more can be made of
him, but we don't think Gandalf and Frodo are heartless when they
leave the sorrows of Middle Earth behind. It's no longer their
task to set things to right nor to help folk to do so. 

Why should it be different for Harry and Dumbledore?

Pippin