CHAPDISC: DH32, The Elder Wand

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 184796

> 
> Montavilla47:
> Yes, but none of those things has to do with reforming the Ministry
> itself.  The first is just a title, and the second two have to are
really more him voicing his opinions about certain policies than
actively working on changing the system.

Pippin:
We see him trying to gain consent that reforms should be made, which
is about all anyone can do, in authority or not,  if one believes that
no meaningful positive change can happen without consent.  We
don't see much of  Dumbledore pushing, but we know he pushed hard
enough that Fudge pushed back. 

Dumbledore and Harry were marginalized by a smear campaign in which
Harry was identified as a disturbed youth being manipulated by a
power-hungry Dumbledore. That wasn't as far from the truth as Harry
would have liked to think, heheh. But Dumbledore would appear far more
of a monster if we didn't know that he'd tried to find some
other means to counter Voldemort, even though, without Ministry
cooperation, he wasn't likely to get very far. I think it was for that
reason that Rowling put in as much as she did about efforts that
eventually were to prove unsuccessful. 

> Montavilla47:
> But whether or not they intelligent in another context, they
*aren't* in another situation.  They are in the situation that JKR
created for  them, which is one that makes them basically useless to
either side.

 Which is only a problem when you set them up to be important 
> as either allies or enemies.  Because that sets up an expectation 
> in the reader's mind.

Pippin:
But was it set up that way? It was a plausible expectation circa GoF
that the giants would be a key element, but as it turned out, giants
and dementors were of tactical, not strategic, importance. 

 Voldemort's stated strategy was to raise "an army of creatures whom
all fear" -- which he did, using dementors and a giant or two, but
also werewolves and most of all wizards controlled by Imperius.

 Dumbledore's stated strategy was to encourage unity, "we are only as
strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided" in the service of
the greater, ie common, good. In retrospect, what Dumbledore foresaw
was that even with an energetic leader,  the Ministry would be too
weak to stand up to Voldemort alone. That's what was demonstrated by
replacing Fudge with Scrimgeour. 

In retrospect, Dumbledore pressed Fudge about the Giants and the
dementors  because Voldemort had talked about them in the graveyard
and it was a logical move to thwart Voldemort's plans.  But it was no
use telling Fudge that since he refused to believe there had been a
graveyard. Nor would it have been easy to convince him. We've seen how
easily wizards can fake a crime scene, and just as easily conceal
evidence that a crime had taken place.

IMO, the giants as a race are mostly a cautionary tale, contained
within OOP, of what can happen if people are so marginalized that they
can no longer provide for themselves. Thematically, it's Grawp rather
than the race of giants, that's important.

Towards the end of OOP, Grawp  protected the Trio because they were
friends of Hagrid, something that Aragog once refused to do. That was
hardly irrelevant to the theme of recognizing a common good which
supersedes old doubts and enmities. It was, as Dumbledore hoped,  the
key to victory,  achieved by people working, if not in harmony, then
at least in parallel.

IMO, both Voldemort and Dumbledore pursued exactly the strategies they
laid out in GoF. But as for the details, we would have been wise to
heed the narrator: "it was useless to speculate about what might be
coming until they knew anything for certain." -- GoF ch 37.

Pippin