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

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 182857

> zanooda
> 
> it's from Rita's book: "... Dumbledore delayed, for some five 
> years of turmoil, fatalities, and disappearances, his attack
> upon Gellert Grindelwald" ("The Life and Lies ...", p.359 Am ed.).
>
> <snip>  I believe that it's not five years from the time DD and 
> GG parted ways, but five years from the time GG started taking
> over Europe and the wizarding community turned to DD in the hope
> that he would interfere - probably from 1940 to 1945.

Mike:
I meant to address this, just finally getting to it now. I think 
zanooda is exactly right, the five years is being measured from when 
Gindelwald started his takeover in Europe. Not that JKR's maths is 
anything to bank on. I suppose in her parallel universe, this 
coincides, approximately, with Hitler's wartime efforts. I suppose 
one could postulate that the cover of a Muggle World War was a 
perfect time for a wizarding war. Who would notice a few wizards 
going missing amongst all the turmoil?

What really rankled my bones was Rita Skeeter's insinuations about 
Dumbledore. As many of you know, I'm not the most ardent Dumbledore 
fan. But this dig by Rita got my dander up on Dumbledore's behalf.

How DARE she? How dare she give Dumbledore grief over how *long* it 
took Dumbledore to confront Grindelwald? Who is she, or anyone else 
for that matter, to demand someone go to battle for them? Much less 
how long it took Dumbledore to 'Save the World' from Grindelwald. To 
sit back and bitch about how long it took someone to face death on 
your behalf is the height of incredulity in my mind. In doing so she 
ignores the fact that Dumbledore owes *nothing* to the WW as a whole 
and probably less to the mainland European WW.

What obligation Dumbledore felt as an honorable man and a capable 
wizard is beside the point. What Skeeter is doing here and in her 
writing of the book in general is no less ignominious than all those 
that participated in Hitler's propaganda machine or that New York 
Times writer that won a Pulitzer for ignoring Stalin's starvation of 
millions of Ukranians and Russians in the mid-30s (forgot his name 
and don't really want to remember it). Skeeter is standing by while 
people are being killed, made to live on the run, forced into 
destitution and begging for help on the streets of Diagon Alley, and 
instead giving aid and comfort to Voldemort by denigrating the dead 
leader of the resistance against him.

Did I want to know these backstories? Sure I did, but the way they 
were presented by Skeeter, as if what Dumbledore actually did (save 
the world from a Grindelwald takeover) was not good enough for her, 
makes my stomach turn over.

OK, rant done. I think it needed to be said, and I think JKR intended 
me to draw the parallels to RW history.

Mike,
wishing all the mothers on this list a Happy Mother's Day, whichever 
country you live in. :-)