Dursleys or Death (was Re: Christian Forgiveness and Snape)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 164501

Pippin:
> Well in this case they're the same thing.  You make it sound as 
> if not preparing Harry to fight Voldemort would somehow have 
> saved him from having to do it, and that's just not supported by 
> canon. Haven't we seen enough of Voldemort's implacability to know 
> that he would never have given up? What other choice did Dumbledore 
> have, except the equivalent of hospice -- keep the patient 
> comfortable and wait for the end? 
<snip>
Pippin:
> Many parents would choose otherwise. <snip> Dumbledore can't know.
> He can only do what seems right to him. But parents do make such 
> choices. I'm one of them. 

Jen:  I was speaking more rhetorically to the fact that Dumbledore 
knew Harry would suffer at the Dursleys, that he was dooming him 
to 'ten dark and difficult years' and he decided to make the decision 
alone rather than ask someone what the Potters might have wanted or 
to 'condemn' Harry themselves.  To do so would risk others 
saying 'no, we'll find another way' or having their compassion move 
them to reconsider once the immediate danger passed.  Dumbledore 
believed at the time that compassion for Harry's suffering would cost 
Harry his life and that he alone might be capable of choosing with 
his head and not his heart.

So the 'twinkling lights' going out of his eyes when he left Harry 
were meant to convey how a part of him died to make this choice.  And 
that once he met Harry and started to have a relationship with him, 
that part of him resurrected and he succumbed to the 'flaw' of 
compassion.  And in the end he is telling *himself* that he wasn't 
wrong to find his heart again when it came to Harry, 'I defy anyone 
who has watched you as I have--and I have watched you more closely 
than you have imagined--not to want to save you more pain than you 
have already suffered.'  

Magpie:
> But it comes back to Dumbledore creating his own problems by
> launching into his "If Sirius had been nicer to Kreacher it wouldn't
> have happened and that's what we should do with House Elves" angle
> in response to a throwaway angry line of Harry's. He decides he has
> to defend Kreacher when Harry blames him for Sirius' death and hates
> him for it. <snip>That's looking at his own responsibility instead
> of saying what Sirius should have done.

Jen: I don't think Dumbledore wanted to look at his own 
responsibility in that moment though, I think he was pretty angry 
with Sirius!  And when Harry calls him on it, tells him how his words 
actually sound to Harry, 'SO SIRIUS ACTUALLY DESERVED WHAT HE GOT', 
Dumbledore starts to back off until, 'I was trying to keep Sirius 
alive', said Dumbledore quietly.  And then he goes on to express 
an 'uncharacteristic sign of exhaustion, or sadness...'

Right or wrong, Dumbledore is working out the events and his own 
feelings just as surely as Harry is.  Objectively he should be able 
to put it aside and attend to Harry but he doesn't.  

I'm banking on JKR having the tight plot construction she professes 
to have and that Dumbledore in HBP is *not* the kinder, gentler 
Dumbledore due to JKR rewriting him for fans, rather that the speech 
is the necessary moment of Dumbledore's transition in Harry's eyes 
and his failures open the way for the more equitable relationship 
they share in HBP.  I believe we might yet hear about other 
circumstances or failures that will shine a different light on 
Dumbledore's character and his choices.

All that to say I probably agree with Magpie's comment: "Dumbledore's 
not being the perfectly sensitive person who says exactly what Harry 
needs to hear and makes him feel better--but that's okay.  It's more 
interesting, probably, that he fumbles the ball here.  JKR probably 
really prefers to keep Harry off-balance here, and not give him a 
soft moment of closure."

Jen