Harry's DADA skill was Re: Albus and Gellert/Voldemort's Power

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 182687

> Carol, who thinks that Harry's triumph is all the more remarkable
> because it doesn't involve the flashy magic that his friends expected
> him to learn in HBP
>

Montavilla47:

I quite agree, Carol. Which is why I wish--partly from a storytelling
view, partly from the commonsense one--that Dumbledore had
put someone on the Horcrux-Destroying team who did have some
of that "flashy magic."  Or advanced skills in D.A.D.A.  

Dumbledore gave Harry a lot of information that was helpful in
finding the Horcruxes (which, luckily, weren't protected by the 
extraordinary curses and enchantments that the locket and ring
were protected by), and NO information about how to destroy them.

Undoubtably, that would have come after Snape rescued DD from
being poisoned--had that happened.

I suppose Dumbledore expected Harry could just whack at the
Horcurxes with the Sword of Gryffindor--forgetting that the 
sword wasn't his to bequeath to a single student and that it did
belong to the school itself.  

But I really don't get it.  We know that there are *three* members of
the Order who have the chops to help Harry in Horcrux-hunting.  

One of those is Snape.  Okay, granted, Snape has something else
important to do, which is to protect the school and keep a lookout
for Voldemort to start protecting his snake.  Plus, Harry hates Snape
and Snape hates Harry and having them work together in OotP wasn't
such a hot idea.

Then, there's Lupin.  The dispensible Lupin.  Okay, Lupin is supposed
to be infiltrating the werewolves or something, but as we know that
never did a lick of good to anyone.  Was Dumbledore so cowed by 
Tonks's frequent trips to his office to whine about Lupin that he kept
Lupin out of the loop?  Or was he unsure of Lupin's loyalty because of
that whole lying-to-DD-about Sirius stuff?  

Does he trust Lupin or not?  If he doesn't, why keep him around?  
If he does, then why not give Harry the benefit of someone with no
real ties to others (since Tonks and Lupin were "on a break" as far as
Dumbeldore knew) and with knowledge about the Dark Arts?

But, even if Lupin can't be trusted, there's still Bill Weasley, the
CURSE-BREAKER!  Why the hell is he puttering around Shell
Cottage when he could be saving the world?  Okay, yeah, Bill
is engaged to be married, but Lily and James had to have been
fighting Voldemort on their honeymoon with all the time they had 
leaving school and dying.  It wasn't until Lily was actually 
pregnant (according to the extra-canonical interviews) that
she stopped actively fighting the Death Eaters.

Three experienced wizards who could have joined the 
Horcrux hunt as easily as the Trio did, and who had loads more
experience and knowledge than Harry (and probably even Hermione).  

Can you imagine how much faster that hunt could have gone
if Dumbledore had used all three?  Especially since Bill had 
connections to Gringott's.  Who would have been a better wizard to help 
plan a break-in?

In a sense this is a silly thing for me to be bemoaning.  The story
wasn't about being clever.  It was, like all the plots, about 
manipulating things so that Harry is in certain places at certain
times, and experiences certain things.  But, really, having 
a former D.A.D.A. teacher with Death Eater connections, who spends
his summers entombed with Dark Arts' books... and an already
ostracized former D.A.D.A. teacher with plenty of Dark Arts chops,
AND a curse-breaker who works for the bank that is safeguarding
a Horcrux and never using them...

It's like having a roomful of guns onstage and never having one go
off in the third act.