CHAPDISC: PS/SS 1, The Boy Who Lived

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 187703


> 
> 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:
Suffering what? The standard of care in a modern British institution is higher than what Harry received at the Dursleys, I should hope. OTOH, if there are DE's  so hot on the trail that they could find Harry before Dumbledore did, then it's the Dursleys or nowhere, and Dumbledore should optimize his actions towards persuading Petunia to take Harry in. Harry will be dead within days if she doesn't. 

> 
> 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.

Pippin:
You'd be happier if Dumbledore denied to himself that a risk was present? Exactly where in the books do we find a risk-free environment? Wait, there's one. King's Cross. 

Alla: 
> 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.

Pippin:
You can't say a guardrail wasn't needed because no one ever ran into it. As long people avoided the cliff, it did its job.

Voldemort says that he and his DE's cannot penetrate the protection at Privet Drive, not at least without the full power of the MOM.   


Was it truly impenetrable? Probably not, the point is, Voldemort thought it was. Dumbledore chose love magic because he knew that Voldemort didn't understand it and didn't want to. Maybe if he and his followers could have come to understand love magic, they'd have seen a way through it, but  they wouldn't have been evil any more.


Alla: 
> 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. 

Pippin:
The attack on the Longbottoms, and the penetration of the Weasley household by Peter Pettigrew, shows what the DE's were capable of. Don't you think they'd have gone after Harry if they could? 


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

Pippin:
The pampered princes of the book: Dudley, Draco, Sirius, James, even Dumbledore himself, are they not damaged? Are they not selfish and unthinkingly cruel?  Harry, OTOH, is prone to depression and anger, but he generally is not selfish and at least he notices when he is being cruel.

The point of the books, though, is that none of those conditions prevented people from fighting evil. You don't have to be a storybook good guy to do it. That's what is subversive of the genre, IMO.

Pippin