HBP Chapters 27 - 30 post DH look

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184461

Alla quotede:
<snip>
> "He had known there was no hope from the moment that the full Body-
Bind Curse Dumbledore had placed upon him lifted, known that it could
have happened only because its caster was dead, but there was still no
preparation for seeing him here, spread-eagled, broken: the greatest
wizard Harry had ever, or would ever, meet" - p.608
> 
Alla commented:
> 
> And all I can think of now is poor Harry. When I think of the
coldness with which Dumbledore just immobilised him to watch the show
he arranged to happen (Snape killing him), ugh, it makes me sooo angry
at Dumbledore.

Carol responds:
Dumbledore knows that he's going to die one way or the other--Potion,
ring, Draco, DEs, or Snape. He doesn't know for sure that Snape will
come or that he will go through with his promise, but if he does, he
has to make sure that Harry doesn't interfere. Nor does he know that
the split second he takes to freeze Harry will cost him his wand,
causing one part of his plan to literally fly out the window. All he
knows is that the DEs are coming, and, he hopes, Snape will arrive
before it's too late. In the meantime, it's imperative that he talk
Draco out of killing him, and he might as well use that time to find
out what happened with Draco, so that Harry will know, too. 

Do you think that Harry would have remained hidden under his
Invisibility Cloak as Draco told his story if DD hadn't cast that
spell? I don't. I think he would have tried to fight Draco, who might
well panic and kill both DD and Harry to carry out his mission. Even
if he didn't, if the DEs arrived and found Harry fighting Draco, or if
Harry emerged when the DEs arrived to fight them by himself, the
consequences would have been disastrous. They would have been equally
disastrous if he stayed under cover till Snape came and emerged to
fight Snape. 

Harry did not know Dumbledore's plan. There was no time to tell him
even though he twice tried to send him for Severus. Nor did Harry know
that Snape was on his and Dumbledore's side. More than Dumbledore's
plan would have been ruined if Snape had failed. Not only Snape and
Draco and DD could and probably would have been killed, but Harry
himself would be in the gravest danger, with no way to find out about
the soul bit in his head, and no way to kill Voldemort until it was
destroyed. 

I don't think that freezing Harry was an act of cold calculation. I
think it was a desperate move to preserve him at the cost of part of
Dumbledore's plan, the part involving ending the Elder Wand's power.
> 
Alla quoting: 
> "And he knew, without knowing how he knew it, that the phoenix had
gone, had left Hogwarts for good, just as Dumbledore had left the
school, had left the world... had left Harry" - p.632
> 
Alla comments:
> 
> Please believe me, I cried every time I read this sentence, I mean I
cried for several minutes first time and shed a tear every time I 
reread it before DH came out.
> 
> And now all I can spare is giggles. Don't you worry Harry,
Dumbledore will be quite nicely pulling strings from beyond or from
his strangely smart portrait in book 7.
> 
> I hated Dumbledore's actions before DH, I was not as I mentioned
before particularly surprised by even more revealed manipulativeness
and I am just honestly struggling to think what tipped the scales for
me. I mean, I know I repeat it again, but I find it amusing how I 
could not stand *so many of his actions* and still when I was 
thinking of his character as whole, I thought of him as good man.
> 
> Oh no more.
> 
> I think I was hoping that he genuinely cared about people despite 
necessity of making tough choices. I do not think that he ever cared
about anybody any more. I believe that he came to love Harry, sort of.

Carol:
Funny how differently people react. I never *hated* Dumbledore's
actions, though some of them annoyed and still annoy me, especially
when they involve his high opinion of himself. I did hate Dumbledore
himself for awhile, feeling with Harry that DD had betrayed him (and
snape). I felt differently after "King's Cross," though I'm the first
to admit that it didn't answer all my questions. 

But giggle? Yes, DD will be pulling strings behind the scenes as a
portrait with a most unusual amount of DD's brains and personailty
left behind in him. But Harry's loss is devastating. It's not just a
loss of his mentor, it's a loss of direction, and it's followed hard
by a loss of faith in DD himself thanks to Rita Skeeter's hints and
revelations, not to mention the confusing legacy of a Snitch, a
Deluminator, and a children's book. It's a loss of Hogwarts, too, and
it forces him to go on alone (he thinks) on a seemingly impossible
mission against a much more powerful wizard (despite the powers in his
scar which in some sense make him LV's "equal," or rather, make
vanquishing LV a job that only he can do).

I still feel affection for the eccentric side of Dumbledore ("nitwit,
blubber, oddment, tweak"), and I think I understand why he acted as he
did, not only on the tower and in giving Harry into Petunia's keeping,
but with regard to Smape and in many other matters. He was too
secretive and manipulative, he was utterly stupid to put on the ring,
but, in general, once he reached adulthood and, especially, old age,
he did what he thought he had to do to make possible the ultimate
defeat of Voldemort.

I can't cry for him, but I feel--for him, as for Snape--a sense of
loss (and a hope that they're both happy in the afterlife, away from
the WW and its woes).

Carol, glad that it's no longer torture to read "The Lightning-Struck
Tower"