[HPforGrownups] Dumbledore's judgment (WAS Hermione and 'Evil is a strong word')

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 165993

> Draeconin:
>
> Dumbledore's judgment has always been unsound in my opinion, as
> evidenced by most of the DADA teachers, Trelawny, and Professor Binns.
>
> The reasons for naming the DADA teachers are self-evident. Trelawney was,
> for the most part, a pretentious fake. Up to the point where Umbridge
> had her fired, she had only two genuine prophecies. The only reason I
> can see for Dumbledore hiring her was to keep track of her in case she
> had another prophecy after the first. Was that good enough reason to
> inflict her on students who might have actually learned something under
> another teacher?
>
> And Professor Binns: if he had been the least bit animated (no pun
> intended) and made an effort to make the subject matter interesting...
> I'm sure Harry and Ron weren't the only ones going to sleep in that
> class. How many received a substandard mark because the ghost just
> droned on and on. Not to mention he must have been like that in life as
> well.
>
> One can almost understand why he kept Snape on, since the man seems to
> have been a brilliant potions master and he needed a reason for Snape to
> be able to talk to him. But as a teacher, Snape's blatant bias against
> Gryffindor (who knows about the other Houses) and his favoritism towards
> Slytherins couldn't have led to a good learning environment - especially
> for the Gryffindors.
>
> So there are plenty of instances to show Dumbledore's poor judgment.

Magpie:
I think we're mixing together a lot of things under "poor judgement," 
though, to the point where it becomes meaningless. Dumbledore has absolutely 
made mistakes--big ones. And there are plenty of choices he's made that many 
of us don't agree with, from what he chose to do with Harry to not liking 
his choices for teachers (I can think of 4 permenant ones off the top of my 
head that many people want out). He can be wrong.

But the kind of judgment we mean here refers to the times when Dumbledore 
takes the time to focus on someone and study them, give them a chance. When 
he does that he does seem to get a feel for them--a correct feel. He might 
still make mistakes with them, but he'll generally understand his mistakes 
afterwards and they'll not be about missing their core character. His 
mistake with Sirius wasn't that he didn't understand Sirius it was that he 
though he could deal with something better than he did--just as he claims he 
did with Snape and Occlumency. He wasn't surprised at Snape's reaction, he 
just hoped he'd do better. I suspect that if Dumbledore was absolutely 
needing to bank on either of them he wouldn't press to hard on those sore 
spots. That's why he can trust Snape completely and also not be surprised 
when he fails at something like teaching Occlumency after Harry saw into his 
Pensieve. Or can trust Hagrid with his life even after he blabbed about how 
to get past Fluffy.

That's more the kind of thing, it seems to me, that we're talking about with 
Dumbledore's second chance with Snape. Could he be suckered in by a fake 
tale of remorse? That's the type of thing Dumbledore doesn't seem to fall 
for. Even when he's got fakes in the school like Fake!Moody and Lockhart it 
doesn't seem like Dumbledore's being played as gullible about their 
character. With Moody he's basing his judgment on actual Moody. Carol 
brought up Draco as someone who doesn't trust Dumbledore's judgment but I'd 
also add him under the list of people Dumbledore seems to get once he sets 
his mind to him. In that last scene, while Draco is unconvincingly claiming 
Dumbledore's the stupid old man, Dumbledore seems more confident and 
accurate in his understanding of Draco's character than Draco himself, who's 
a mess.

-m