Dumbledore and the MOM (Re: The Fundamental Message.../ Heroes...)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 176580

> Magpie:
> > The Dementors, iirc, left Azkaban to join Voldemort--again, he got
> > rid of them, not Dumbledore or society. Dumbledore worked with 
them
> > as guards of Azkaban. Do we know they're not guards at Azkaban
> > anymore? They're working at the MoM in DH, maybe they still are
> > afterwards, only not under DEs. I don't recall getting rid of them
> > being any main objective of Dumbledore's.
> 
> Jen: I was including the information from the Bloomsbury chat: 
> 
> Steph: Will azkaban still use dementors?
> J.K. Rowling: No, definitely not. Kingsley would see to that. The 
use 
> of Dementors was always a mark of the underlying corruption of the 
> Ministry, as Dumbledore constantly maintained.

Mgapie:
Oh, I didn't read that chat. I have to say though, that it reminds me 
of why people were so puzzled by Harry's Crucio. Why are we supposed 
to know the Dementors are a sign of the underlying corruption of the 
Ministry, exactly? It seems like just another one of those random 
signs of ethical superiority of Dumbledore et al. that's not 
explained. Obviously they're awful things, and yet I could easily 
imagine a scene where, say, the twins locked somebody in a room with 
Dementors (maybe in a cage so they can't actually suck his soul or 
something) being played as satisfying revenge. Or Harry doing it to 
somebody (he does say he'll let the Dementors have Peter).

Why is wrong for the Ministry to ally itself with "such creatures" 
exactly? I know why I would protest having them as guards, but then I 
don't like lots of things considered justice in the series. It seems 
like they're part of that "Dark Magic" idea again. The Ministry shows 
that it's bad because it's got this bad association with Dark 
Magic/Dark creatures. Dark=bad. But if you're wondering what Dark is 
okay (use of certain curses by certain people) and what Dark is bad 
(signs of underlying corruption) you have to look to your characters 
of authority to tell you. James and Lily tells us Snape's obsession 
with the Dark Arts showed an underlying corruption (as did his choice 
of Dark Arts-using friends), Harry tells us he despises Draco for his 
obsession with the Dark Arts, Dumbledore tells us we should not be 
allied with Dementors. That's why JKR has to tell somebody that the 
Dementors were supposed to be a sign of underlying corruption (a 
marked contrast to her response to the question of Harry's Crucio--
hey, he's never been a saint!).


-m