Dumbledore's judgment

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 166033



Alla:

But then we are back to DD poor judgment, I think. I mean, if you 
are saying that DD's judgment is correct when he concentrates on the 
person, makes the person his project, then how do we know when this 
happens?

Are you saying that in order for DD to be correct about the person 
he must make the person his project, depend on him?
 
Julie:
I think that DD made Snape his project first and only *later* 
came to trust and depend on Snape so "completely." I.e. Snape
earned that full and complete trust over the years, he didn't
necessarily have it all initially. Dumbledore obviously did
see *potential* for Snape to change, as he sees potential for
Draco to change for the better (and he didn't see that same 
potential in Tom), but that doesn't mean the trust was set
from the beginning. Certainly not as strongly as it is by HBP. 
 
I also think it's a case of comparing apples and oranges here.
In the case of Sirius as a young man, DD had no reason to look
so closely because he was taking Sirius at face value, just as
he was taking Peter, Lupin, etc at face value. He had no reason
to distrust Sirius, especially as he would have relied strongly
on James' evaluation of his own friends, given James knew them
so much better than Dumbledore could hope to. He had reason to
distrust Snape, Draco, and Tom Riddle. In those cases he made
a judgment call, chose whether to make each one his "project",
i.e., whether each deserved a "second chance", and he decided
Tom did not, while Snape and Draco did. His judgment not to
extend a "second chance" to Tom was correct, and I suspect his 
judgment to extend second chances to Snape and Draco will turn 
out to be correct also. 
 
I hope that makes sense.

Julie, who doesn't discount new revelations in DH adding more
reasons for Dumbledore's greater knowledge of and trust in 
Snape. 
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