HatingDH/Dementors/...Draco/.../KeepSlytherin House

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 177667

> >>Pippin:
> How could Dumbledore promise that? He's not omniscient.
> If Harry had been sorted into Slytherin, then Dumbledore would have
> had to use another example to show that Harry has made choices
> that show he is different than Voldemort.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
But he didn't.  I mean, Harry didn't sort into Slytherin and so 
Dumbledore was never forced to figure out another way to show Harry 
that Harry was naturally a good boy.  So the "Slytherin equals 
sinner; Gryffindor equals blessed" short-hand to understanding the 
characters of Potterverse works.  

I feel like you're kind of building up a straw man with this sort of 
argument.  Using a scenario that never occurred to suggest that the 
scenario that *did* occur wasn't as meaningful as all that.  This is 
a work of fiction.  Harry being sorted into Gryffindor was meaningful 
because that's how JKR wrote it.  Heck, she even highlighted it.  
IOWs, Dumbledore doesn't have to be omniscient because JKR, as 
author, is.

I strongly suspect that a Harry who'd sorted into Slytherin would 
have created an entirely different story wherein Dumbledore *would* 
have worried that Harry was going down Tom Riddle's road.  But this 
is all whimsey and may-have-beens.  Harry did not sort into 
Slytherin, he sorted into Gryffindor, hence Dumbledore's confidence 
that he was going to be a-okay.

> >>Pippin:
> <snip>
> Since Harry had not only survived the Dursleys uncorrupted but was
> toting around a fragment of Voldemort's soul without harm,
> it seems highly unlikely that Dumbledore thought that associating  
> with Draco Malfoy or Marcus Flint would have ruined him.

Betsy Hp:
The power of Harry's pure blood protected him from all that.  And a 
*sign* of Harry's personal purity was that he chose Gryffindor over 
Slytherin.  It's all of a piece.  Because that's how JKR designed it 
to be.  Otherwise, she'd have selected, or had Dumbledore point out 
other ways in which Harry had shown his inate goodness.

It's not the power of Draco Malfoy or Marcus Flint.  It's not so 
small as that.  It's the overall sin that Slytherin, as a house 
entire, holds.  Evil is in their very stones, I guess you could say.  
It can be "diluted" (weakened, I suppose?) but it will never be 
pure.  At least, that's the impression I was left with. 

> >>Pippin:
> <snip>
> Harry, the better man, does not tell Al that he is named for a 
> Slytherin so brave he could have been a Gryffindor. He tells Al
> he will have a choice, but not that the choice of Gryffindor will
> mean that he is different than Voldemort. Oddly enough, by
> the end of the book it is Dumbledore who symbolizes the
> perils of cunning and too great a desire for power, while
> Snape has come to embody friendship and bravery. 

Betsy Hp:
And yet, the kid's name is Al.  Short for Albus.  So I think you're 
projecting here.  Snape was shown to be brave.  I doubt he's supposed 
to actually *embody* bravery.  He's just a Slytherin who managed to 
scrap a bit of Gryffindor goodness into his twisted, Slytherin soul.  
A wizard Al's never heard of going by the conversation he and Harry 
have.  (I rather suspect Al's heard about Dumbledore.)

Also, where does friendship get related to Snape?  He obsessed over 
Lily to an alarming rate, but friendship?  I don't recall that at all.

I think using Dumbledore to symbolize cunning and ambition is 
reaching too.  Again, the boy's first name is "Albus".  Also, while 
Harry went through moments of doubt, in the end he trusted in and 
followed Dumbledore's plan.  Even though it seemed to mean his own 
death.  I guess I'm not sure where I'm supposed to see Harry 
repudiating Dubmledore to such an extent, Snape becomes the better 
wizard in his eyes.  I'm also not sure where the reader is supposed 
to pick that message up.


Betsy Hp