Dumbledore as a judge of character (Was:Why DD did not ask Snape to kill him

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 165952

Alla wrote:
> <snip>
> For me Snape pettiness, childishness and immaturity did not go anywhere.
>
> I mean, of course he is a powerful wizard, who can argue with that?
>
> I just do not think that it precludes him from being stuck in his
emotional development, being powerful that is.
>
> And of course Dumbledore being a good judge of character is amusing
to me as well and disagreeable too. :)
>
Carol responds:
Dumbledore also trusts another powerful wizard who demonstrates
pettiness, childishness, and immaturity: Sirius Black (still using the
schoolground nickname "Snivellus," still wishing that Severus had died
in the so-called Prank, etc.). Clearly, Snape's inability to get past
not one but two humiliating incidents, the "worst memory" and the much
more dangerous and traumatic exposure to a werewolf, followed by the
humiliation of having his life saved by his worst enemy) is not a
reason to mistrust him in DD's view, nor is being stuck in adolescence
because of twelve years in Azkaban a reason to mistrust Sirius Black.
The immaturity, which shows up in Snape only in relation to the
Marauders but in Sirius Black also in relation to Harry (wanting him
to take risks for the fun of it) is a side issue. Whatever
Dumbledore's reason(s) for trusting them both, he does so in spite of
their shared fault.

That aside, let's look at the people Dumbledore trusts (perhaps not as
completely as he trusts Snape). We can start with Harry, whom he loves
and admires and from whom he withholds information only because Harry
is too young, not yet ready, or because the link with Voldemort is too
strong (in OoP). By HBP, Dumbledore is telling Harry things that
he's apparently told no one else, even trusting Harry to forcefeed him
poison. And DD sldo trusts Ron and Hermione, to whom he allows Harry
to confide the Prophecy and the existence of the Horcruxes. He trusts
Hagrid with his life (but perhaps not with his secrets). He trusts the
members of the Order with the knowledge that Voldemort is back before
that becomes common knowledge and with helping him in the fight
against LV. 

The Order members have their weaknesses, too, yet Dumbledore trusts
them to remain loyal to him and to fight Voldemort in their own way.
Lupin is secretive and withheld information that could have cost
Harry his life in PoA if Black had really been out to murder him
rather than Wormtail. Moody is paranoid and perhaps not entirely sane.
Mundungus is a sneak thief, and Dumbledore *may* be wrong to trust him
(we don't yet know what the incident with Aberforth and his arrest for
impersonating an Inferius are all about). He doesn't trust Trelawney
enough to make her an Order member apparently, but he keeps her at
Hogwarts, even allowing her to share classes with Firenze, because
it's the only way to protect her. His judgment of both Slughorn and
Scrimgeour seems right on the money, based on the little we've seen of
either, as does his assessment of Fudge at the end of GoF. He knows
their strengths and their weaknesses, just as he knows those of the
Order members, including Snape. He knows whom to trust and to what degree.

But Dumbledore never trusted Tom Riddle, even as an eleven-year-old
boy. So where and when has Dumbledore been wrong as a judge of
character? I don't see it. (Let's look at those who question
Dumbledore's judgement, aside from Harry, who questions it only with
regard to Snape. Draco calls him "a stupid old man" and the Daily
Prophet thinks from OoP onward that he's losing his grip. He loses his
position as head of the Wizengamot, etc., because he believes Harry
Potter's story that Voldemort is back. And it turns out that
Dumbledore is right to trust Harry and believe his story.)

The Order members, unlike the Daily Prophet, know that Dumbledore's
judgment was sound. Now granted, the Order members (for the most part)
claim that they trusted Snape only because Dumbledore did, but they're
forgetting that Dumbledore had good reason to trust Snape, setting
aside that as-yet-unrevealed "ironclad" reason. They're in shock, and
all they can think of is Harry's version of events on the tower,
beginning and ending with Snape killed Dumbledore. Understandably,
they think that DD's trust in Snape was unjustified, but they're
forgetting that they themselves have reasons to trust Snape.
McGonagall knows perfectly well that Snape saved Harry's life in
SS/PS. Lupin probably knows that Snape conjured stretchers to get HRH
off the grounds when he was running around in werewolf form.
McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley (who, BTW, says nothing about Snape that I
recall since her attention is on Bill) saw Snape show Fudge his Dark
Mark as proof that Voldemort was back--an act of courage that HRH also
witnessed. All of them know that Snape sent the Order to rescue Harry
from the Death Eaters. So Dumbledore's trust in Snape is not baseless.
Neither is their faith in Dumbledore's judgement. It is still quite
possible (very likely, IMO) that Dumbledore, the wise old man who's
lived as long as McGonagall and Slughorn put together, has it right.

BTW, Percy refers to Sturgis Podmore (in a letter to Ron in OoP), who
has just been arrested for trying to break through a door in the MoM
(we later learn that he was Imperiod by Lucius Malfoy) as a "great
friend" of Dumbledore's. I wonder what that was about and whether
we'll see more of Sturgis. I assume that Dumbledore's faith in Sturgis
was justified.

Carol, who can't imagine Draco's judgment of Dumbledore being validated