Resolutions/Ron's Cloak/Slytherins are Bad

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 183481

-- 
> Magpie:
> No it wouldn't. Dumbledore was in the most powerful position there 
> was as Headmaster of Hogwarts. In the center of the action and 
> overseeing Harry Potter. He didn't want to be MoM for his own 
> reasons, not because he just couldn't leave his students. (Even 
> Voldemort took over the Ministry as his second choice.)
> 

Pippin:
I meant when Riddle resurfaced as Voldemort, Dumbledore says that
Riddle doesn't really intend to base himself at Hogwarts. He must be
right, because if Voldemort had  wanted to infiltrate Hogwarts and
take it over, he could have. Dumbledore's stated reason for not
wanting the MoM at that time wasn't that it would be a weaker
position, quite the reverse. He was afraid of having that much power. 

I wonder, is this something that  people who want to identify with
Slytherin don't get? They just don't believe that anyone is capable of
turning down power unless they expect to get more power by doing it?

Magpie: 
demonstrate the lesson "save  people even if they don't deserve it"
by showing that maybe they do  deserve it--so stop thinking of them
that way. 

Pippin:

Judge not, lest ye misjudge? 

To borrow an argument I've heard somewhere, that doesn't seem to be
the lesson in canon. People misjudge each other from one end of the
series to the other, and as long as it's understood to be an honest
mistake, even a mistake made through fear or jealousy or prejudice,
that's okay. You're forgiven. 

Lupin  struggles with it, but even he never says anything like,  "If
you really were my friend, you wouldn't have thought it of me." If
there's one place where everyone's friends are too good to be true,
that's it. 

And of course the people who want to hurt don't mind being misjudged
one bit -- if their victims think they're eeeevil, it's a compliment,
and if they mistakenly think they've got friends -- well!! 

Generally, judging character is treated like predicting the future:
it's difficult, few humans can honestly claim to be good at it,  and
people should not blame themselves too much if they make a mistake. No
wonder  they rely so much on the Hat!

So, no, I don't think Dumbledore is much afraid that he'll misjudge
others. He forgives himself very easily for that, even when the
consequences have been horrendous *cough*Sirius*cough*. 

It's not, "lest ye make a mess of it." 

It's *lest ye be judged.* 

For the longest time I couldn't see where JKR was going with
Dumbledore's fear of Grindelwald but I get it now.  Dumbledore was
was afraid of facing the true judgment that he had struck his sister
down, and that's his motivation on the tower. 

 It's not about giving Draco a chance to become a better person, or
about the possibility that he already is a better person, though he's
a better person than Harry thought.  It's about Dumbledore
knowing how terrible it is to be judged. He's forgotten -- as he shows
 by judging the Dursleys -- but he's reminded when he faces the
terrible justice of the potion in the cave. 

(Side note: I couldn't see why DD thought he'd  get the truth from
Grindelwald, but if Grindelwald had the pensieve, it would make sense.
Is that one of the things that JKR assumed we'd understand, or did she
leave it mysterious so we'd have to think about it?)


> Pippin:
> With the Slytherins,  JKR is more interested in the ways that
> > decent people can be persuaded to ignore that message. One of them 
> isto slant everything that they hear about a certain group towards
> > making them think that group is both scary and inferior. IMO,
> > Slytherin is her thought experiment for that. 
> 
> Magpie:
> Is the "thought experiment" the Slytherins? Because Slytherins are 
> scary and inferior. That's canon. 

Pippin:
What's scary and inferior about Malcolm Baddock? Did he ever do
anything to show he deserved to be applauded by Draco or hissed by
Fred and George? Graham Pritchard doesn't even have a funny name,
unless I'm missing something. You can't  say they should have
joined the DA or fought for Hogwarts. They were too young. 

And there's Andromeda, who has to be older than Narcissa, who has to
be older than Sirius, and so must have been Sorted to Slytherin. 
I concede anyone's right to doubt JKR's maths, but that's the  canon
we have. 

Magpie:
What's the trick of creating a group of fictional people 
> who are always one way and winding up with the audience associating 
> them with those traits?

Pippin:
The trick is that we're manipulated to associate  wrong things with
Slytherins, but we also get very strongly that guilt by association is
wrong. So we're shown that even if we want to fight it, it's almost
impossible. It's like prejudice is a form of original sin.

Magpie:
 It actually 
> feels to me sometimes like none of these characters fully taking the 
> opportunity for redemption offered was important from the get go in 
> the series. The appeal is partly in their remaining safely awful and 
> forgiven for it. 

Pippin:
I actually agree with this. 

But it applies to all the characters. It seems partly to be about the
idea that we all waste some of the time that is given to us, that if
we truly understood that every moment of life was precious we wouldn't
waste a moment of it on anger and recrimination and useless regret.
And that every moment we could be making redemptive choices, but we don't.

But it's also about the idea that there are people in the world who
have the courage  to make sacrifices for others. That we need these
people because few of us are good enough to merit redemption on our
own.  It's definitely not about becoming so noble that no one needs to
give up anything for your sake. People do give up things to help Harry
and Dumbledore, including Slughorn and Snape. 

Narcissa takes a terrible risk to help Harry at the end. Granted she's
doing it out of familial love rather than agape, but all of Harry's
selfless love would have been in vain without her help. 
 

Pippin