DD's plan -- Minister of Magic

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 189173


> Carol responds:

> Carol, quite sure that DD would not have drawn Sybil out of the Pensieve for Harry's benefit and explained the components of the Prophecy if he didn't believe in "the power that the Dark Lord has not" and the rest of it
>

Pippin:
Let us suppose that Sybil, some time after Snape's defection, had confessed to Dumbledore in a fit of sherry-induced candor that she had made up the whole thing. What would Dumbledore have done differently?

He would still have tried to protect the infant and child Harry, IMO, because he tried, always,  to protect those who could least protect themselves. He would still have tried to get adult Harry to destroy the horcruxes, partly because Harry was uniquely gifted for the task  but mostly because, if Harry accepted the mission of ridding the world of Voldemort, his life must  be forfeit anyway. 

But Dumbledore learned of Harry's gifts by observation, not through the prophecy, and they weren't always what Dumbledore expected them to be.  Occlumency, for example, was not one of them. 


There seems to be an idea that Dumbledore would not have chosen only one person if it weren't for the prophecy saying there was only one person who could defeat LV. But safety in numbers is a coward's safety, in the Gryffindor way of looking at things. It is either the safety of sheltering behind someone stronger, or of surviving because someone weaker or less fortunate than you was picked off instead. And Dumbledore would never knowingly have bet on a coward.

Pippin