CHAPDISC: PS/SS 1, The Boy Who Lived

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 187701

> Alla:
>
> I see your point, sure. I just think that him being there in person would have
been a better safeguard in case Petunia does refuse to take Harry in rather than
him going to have to search orphanages after the fact (that is IF he learns
about it soon enough).
>

Pippin:
::shrug:: It wouldn't amount to much. Petunia could still throw Harry out as
soon as Dumbledore left.

Alla:

Eh, I meant better safeguard for Harry's life and safety, of course Petunia could still throw him out. But if Dumbledore was here, he could have at least taken Harry with him instead of Harry suffering in the orphanage and Dumbledore maybe finding him later.


Pippin:
Dumbledore wasn't lucky at all -- if you mean he expected that Harry wouldn't be
hurt and counted on luck to make it so. The light in Dumbledore's eyes goes
right out, and he says in OOP that Harry arrived at Hogwarts in much better
condition than he'd expected. He knew and accepted the risk that Harry would be
damaged. He wasn't happy about it.

Alla:

Yes, I know, his twinkle disappeared. I am afraid it does not count much for me. Well, if Dumbledore accepted the risk that Harry would be damaged but put him there anyway, I have several names I want to call him.

Yeah, I know we have that mysterious blood protection, but then we are back to me really not seeing the benefits of that blood protection in the text, really not seeing that it was all worth it.

I wonder where were those mysterious death eaters on the lose? All I needed was for example a glimpse of somebody of DE association looking for Harry in those early years and failing. 
Believe me, that would have gone a very long way of convincing me that what Dumbledore did to Harry was really worth it. 

And of course we are also back to Dumbledore not checking on Harry, which to me so much more not convincing that it could somehow hurt that stupid blood protection, not once before he comes to Hogwarts and oh do not get me started on his OOP speech. Really, Dumbledore, really? Not a pampered prince? Well, I guess everything is fine then.

But if you are saying that Dumbledore knew and accepted the risk that Harry would be damaged, who would fulfill his precious prophecy then?

Forget about Harry as human being, what about Dumbledore's plans? Because I am saying that Dumbledore got lucky that Harry was not really **badly** hurt from something that has nothing to do with Death Eaters. Are you saying that Dumbledore was ready for all that?

Because from what I understand blood protection really does not make Harry immortal, but hey as I said, I consider the idea not to be very convincing except on symbolical level, so maybe I am wrong here.

Pippin:
> Trusting to luck would have been trying some  other method of  keeping Voldemort off, all of which  had failed 100% over the last ten years, and hoping that for some unknown reason one of them would work this time. That would be beyond reckless. That would be insane. <SNIP>

Alla:

And of course we are really back to the argument about whether we had really **seen** any other method of keeping Voldemort's off besides raising a boy as pig for slaughter to do so.

Maybe you could remind me of one of those methods, especially of what exactly Order was doing besides hoping that Harry would save them again?

 On one hand I feel weird arguing these things because again, really I do get that this is the genre of the hero saving their lazy asses with his friends. But since we are looking at the characters from within the story, I do think that it is a fair game to question their competency and attempt to find something else.

And sometimes I do think that love books as I am, JKR's talk of subverting the genre was really quite an empty one, because as far as I can see she really followed the genre to boot.


JMO,

Alla