[HPforGrownups] Dumbledore's role in Trio becoming friends WAS: Re: CHAPTER

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 188454

Mad Alice:
Yes, how would Dumbledore even know that Harry would meet Ron on the train?
And for that matter, the fact that he met Draco earlier in Diagon Alley, and
found him unpleasantly like his cousin Dudley, also influenced him when
Draco tried to warn him off Ron later at Hogwarts.
Dumbledore is a Machivellian manipulator, but he is not omniscient and
all-powerful--something Rowling in fact emphasizes every once in a while in
the books. I don't think even he could have managed to set Harry's whole
life experience up so that he would be friends with certain people when he
got to school.


Debbie:
 As Alice points out, even a master manipulator cannot gain complete control
over everyone's actions.  Thus, while I have no trouble believing that
Manipulative!Dumbledore set up the Stone's protections as a test for Harry,
it's not much of a test if he hands Harry all the tools he needs on a
platter.  JKR carefully arranged for us to meet Ron and Hermione (as well as
a host of other important characters) in that chapter, but I think she set
it up for the readers, not for Harry.

For Dumbledore to engineer Harry's choice of friends would diminish the
value of Harry's ability to discern the right sort of people to choose as
friends, which stems from Harry's own qualities.  And Dumbledore had already
figured out what those qualities were because he sent Hagrid to deliver
Harry's letter, fully expecting Hagrid to drop all the right hints (and
Hagrid wasted no opportunity to paint contrasting pictures of Slytherin and
Gryffindor).  Hagrid's report pretty well reassured Dumbledore of Harry's
character and his likely choice of Gryffindor, where he would meet plenty of
the right sort of people.

Besides, Dumbledore himself is a loner and wouldn't likely be arranging
Harry's friends for him.  Considering his penchant for secrecy, I wouldn't
be surprised if Dumbledore initially considered it a hindrance for Harry to
have friends.  However, I think he quickly came to appreciate the value that
Hermione and Ron added to Harry's mission, and made sure that their help
would be required to overcome the Stone's protections.  (The Mirror of
Erised was not moved until after Christmas, so Dumbledore well knew who
Harry's friends were by then.)

Dumbledore is a master manipulator, but a master manipulator relies on his
understanding of others' characters in choosing who will undertake a
particular mission and then allows events to take their course.  In this
regard, Hagrid is putty in his hands, and Harry performs like a wind-up toy.

Debbie


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