[HPforGrownups] Re: Trelawney's First Interview

[Jordan Abel]

No: HPFGUIDX 169198

On 5/23/07, montavilla47 <montavilla47 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > "K":
> >
> > Why would Dumbledore want Voldemort to know about the prophecy? If
> > Voldemort never hears of it and no action is taken, the prophecy is
> > worthless, isn't it?
>
> Random832:
> > Dumbledore doesn't necessarily want a prophecy predicting (the
> > possibility of) Voldemort's downfall to be worthless.
> >
> > The idea that, in essence, the Potters' and Longbottoms' lives are a
> > risk DD is willing to take, was more popular before HBP than now,
> > since it wasn't clear then that DD _wasn't_ intentionally being
> > written that way (one of the reasons for some of the scenes in HBP
> > clarifying that dumbledore is _not_ in fact a manipulative bastard)
>
> Montavilla47:
> Random, can you point to those scenes in HBP that clarify DD as
> *not* a manipulative bastard?  Because, I didn't think that he
> might be one until I saw that disgraceful scene with the Dursleys.

Well, you have to look at authorial intent - JKR's characterization of
dumbledore has always been clumsy, and that makes anything tend to
look forced. The scene you're referring to was intended to portray him
as caring about Harry whereas post-OOTP, a large segment of the fan
community (evidenced by an entire genre of fanfiction) had theories
such as DD having put him with the dursleys to break his will, etc.