ChapDisc: DH 18, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore

Mike mcrudele78 at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 14 23:13:50 UTC 2008


No: HPFGUIDX 182518

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CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Chapter 18, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore

The original chapter discussion leader had to bow out reviewing this 
chapter. So we've asked a guest reviewer to step in. Originally 
reluctant to do so, Harry Potter has agreed to take himself back to 
this time and place and tell us what was going on his mind and where 
he thought things were heading at Christmas time, 1997. Without 
further ado, heeeere's Harry:
_____________________________________________________

"What was I feeling? I felt naked, my wand was broken. My beautiful 
Phoenix core wand that had saved my life twice against Voldemort. The 
second time on its own. I felt losing my wand was like losing all my 
magic. Now what do I do?"

"I have at least figured one thing out, Dumbledore was a jerk! 
Hermione and I talked ourselves into visiting Godric's Hollow because 
we were sure Dumbledore had a plan for us, that we just had to find 
it. But that wasn't the case. If there was a plan, what was it, how 
were we supposed to follow some secret untold plan with NO clues? And 
he left us nothing, even that stupid snitch is worthless. Yeah, we 
could use the sword, but he didn't even have the foresight to figure 
out how to get that to us."

"Now Voldemort had the picture of the merry-faced thief. He'd be able 
to take the next step in whatever the quest he was on, while Hermione 
and I are stuck on this camping trip from hell. At least Hermione had 
the temerity to *borrow* Batty's copy of Rita's book. Now I'll find 
out some of those secrets that Dumbledore couldn't be bothered to 
explain to me."


"The first secret I discover, Albus Dumbledore was a boyhood friend 
of Gellert Grindelwald. WHAT? The very same Dark Wizard he was famous 
for defeating? Can this be true? What kind of a two-faced hypocrite 
was he?"

"Sure, Rita Skeeter loves to take her liberties with the truth. But 
there Dumbledore was in that picture, laughing it up with 
Grindelwald. And there was that letter, in Dumbledore's hand, 
extolling the virtue of conquering the Muggle world FOR THE GREATER 
GOOD. The phrase that would become Grindelwald's mantra. Even Rita 
must start with a grain of truth, and it seems she had much more than 
a grain here."

"It took his sister's death to straighten him out. But if Grindelwald 
hadn't fled, would Dumbledore have changed his ways? Before I read 
this story, I would have had no doubt, the answer would be yes. Now, 
I'm not sure."

"And what's with his screwy brother and the goat dung?"


"When Hermione tries to plead youthfulness on Dumbledore's behalf, 
I'm not buying it. Look at what he was doing compared to what we are 
doing at the same age. So Dumbledore lost his parents, so what? At 
least he had siblings, what did I have? The Dursleys?!"

"Hermione claims he changed. He became the champion of Muggle rights, 
and fought against Dark Wizards for the rest of his life. Though he 
did wait for five long years from the time Grindelwald started his 
reign of terror before he could bring himself to confront him. Why 
the delay? I have no answer for that either."

"Am I just mad because Dumbledore didn't reveal the worst of himself 
to me, that I had to read it in a posthumous biopic from Rita 
Skeeter? Maybe I am! But the fact remains, Dumbledore NEVER trusted 
me with the whole truth. And look where it's led to, wandering in the 
wilderness, no explanations, no plan. I'm supposed to blindly trust a 
man that shared more with Gellert Grindelwald than he EVER did with 
me?"

"My world is collapsing in on me. Ron is gone and now that the worst 
about Dumbledore has been revealed, it's worse than I could have 
imagined. If the man wasn't already dead, I'd strangle him myself, 
with my bare hands."

_________________________________________________________

Thank you Harry, for that unique insight. We now turn it over to our 
moderator for a question and answer session. I'm sorry, Harry won't 
be able to stay to answer these questions, you'll have to do your 
best on your own.

QUESTIONS:

1. Harry hasn't been this mad at Dumbledore since OotP. Was this 
worse? Compare and contrast this anger with Harry's rage from a year 
and a half ago.

2. Dumbledore calmed Harry in OotP by launching into the whole 
prophecy story, and he started it by saying "I am going to tell you 
everything." In light of this DH chapter, did he?

3. Is Harry right about Dumbledore not trusting him with the whole 
truth? We all know about Dumbledore's penchant for secrecy, but was 
he withholding any information regarding the Horcrux hunt from Harry? 
Was he withholding any information that Harry needed to confront 
Voldemort? (Let's leave out the soul bit in Harry's head for this 
discussion, shall we?)

4. Did Harry have a right to know about Dumbledore's past, especially 
his friendship with GG? Harry admits he may only be mad because DD 
didn't reveal it himself, but how would that knowledge have helped 
Harry?

5. How much do you think Rita was stretching the truth in the part of 
her book we read? It was obvious where she put in her own opinion, 
but on the rest did you think she was telling it honestly, adorning 
the truth a little, or stretching the truth beyond acceptable 
boundaries?

6. With regards to "For the Greater Good", Hermione said Dumbledore 
changed. Did he? Though Dumbledore rejected Grindelwald's 
interpretation of that phrase, did Dumbledore reject his own 
interpretation?

7. Rita had her own speculation. What do you think happened to 
Ariana? Was it Albus's fault, as Aberforth contended when he broke 
his nose, or was Albus taking the blame because he allowed the 
circumstances that led to her death to occur?

8. As Harry asked above: if Grindelwald hadn't fled, would Dumbledore 
have changed his ways? Would Dumbledore have necessarily chosen his 
brother over Gellert? Do you think Aberforth did something that 
showed Albus the error of his ways, and what could that have been?

9. This is the only place where we see Dumbledore interacting with 
Grindelwald. Did you see enough, were there enough hints to indicate 
that Dumbledore may have loved Grindelwald for more than just his 
mind? What about those five years it took DD to finally confront GG? 
Did you think DD was gay and in love with GG after this chapter?

10. OK, what's with Aberforth and the damn goats? And where is Mike 
Gray <Aberforth's Goat> when you need him?

11.  Rita had a lot more to say in her book, stuff that Harry wasn't 
that interested in. Was there anything in there that particularly 
interested you? Like the quotes from "Dogbreath" Doge, Enid Smeek, or 
Bathilda Bagshot, including how she got the quotes out of Batty 
(veritiserum)? Or the insinuations Rita made for the reason behind 
the "coffin-side brawl"?


~ Mike and Sherry
aka Phlytie and Blinky Elves

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