The Greatest, the Chosen and the Brightest

[Laurel Lei]

No: HPFGUIDX 179489

In reading and following some of the various threads... I noticed 
the "Down With Dumbledore" theme.

I think that people, since J.K.'s public revelation, are now trying 
to find more ways to show that Dumbledore is a "bad" or "cruel" or 
a "terrible" person...(and please insert your own adjective here and 
this is not a new topic, by the way).
 
Unfortunately, it's human nature to see fault... and now in some 
people's eyes he's even worse by being viewed as gay. Just another 
layer to categorize or to rationalize dislike. To each his own, I 
say.  Live, Love and be Happy!
 
While reading any of the books in the series, I had always thought of 
Dumbledore as a great, caring wizard. But, I never thought of him as 
the "greatest wizard". Just like I never totally "bought into" the 
idea that Hermione was the "brightest witch of her age". Nor did I 
buy into Harry as the "Chosen One" and that he, alone would save the 
Wizarding World. Dumbledore, Hermione and Harry, like the rest of us, 
are only human, have faults and make mistakes.  Not all of 
Dumbledore's, nor Harry's, nor Hermione's "plans" have had the best 
outcomes. They may have had "people's" best interest in mind, but 
things simply didn't work out.
 
I think that Dumbledore, Harry and Hermione all may have believed 
or "bought into" the comments of others (Greatest Wizard, Chosen One 
or Brightest Witch) and reveled in that a bit... (again, human 
nature... who doesn't like compliments?) and perhaps, like the humans 
that they are, let that go to their heads (on more than one occasion) 
and helped them make some poor choices (choices, another theme of the 
books).  Humans learn by trial and error (I hope) and hindsight is 
20/20.

Harry and the other characters learned much during these seven years 
at school.  But I think they learned the most from each other 
(Dumbledore included) about simply being human. 

One thing I took from the stories is that intelligence, no matter how 
great, cannot replace common sense and it certainly cannot predict 
the future. And in my opinion, character is greater than intelligence.

My two knuts...
-Laurel Lei