Dumbledore & Power / Serpensortia / Crouch Sr / Parselmouth

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 189128



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince" <catlady at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> Dumbledore -- not just Dumbledore, any Minister of Magic -- should appoint at least one trustworthy honest brave intelligent friend to tell him when he's being "irresponsible". 
> 
> For Albus, Aberforth would be ideal for that job. 

Pippin:
How would Aberforth know what position on "the great wizarding issues of the day" was the responsible one? He never cared. By his own account, he only tried to stop Albus and Grindelwald because they proposed to involve Ariana. 

The trouble with advice from friends in general is that friends generally share the same blind spots and prejudices. None of Draco's friends tell him it would be a bad idea to get involved with Voldemort, and I suppose Lucius's friends were the same. 

Catlady: 
> Fudge also should have had and listened to such a person, someone to tell him that his campaign of slander and libel against Dumbledore and Harry was ungentlemanly. Instead he listened to Lucius Malfoy. 

Pippin:
Actually, I think Fudge did have such a person of his own choosing for much of his career: Albus Dumbledore. Albus may have refused the minister's position but he was hardly uninvolved. Fudge was sending him two or three owls a day, according to Hagrid.

Now that I know how Dumbledore operates, I can't think quite as harshly of Fudge for turning against him  as I used to.  There's canon that Fudge shared Harry's  illusion that everything would be okay as long as Dumbledore was there. Fudge knew he'd be outmatched if Voldemort returned, but he expected Dumbledore to have a plan. 

And Dumbledore did -- but the plan was for Fudge to commit political suicide. Knowing Dumbledore, I doubt that he let Fudge know how much  would be expected of him. 

Pippin