Protecting Students

[AmanitaMuscaria]

No: HPFGUIDX 189391



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at ...> wrote:
>
> Hogwarts, at the best of times, is a dangerous place. In the years we saw it--during Harry's term and in flashbacks-- there have been extra dangers. Who do you think did a better job of protecting students--Headmaster Dumbledore or Headmaster Snape? or overall in general Professor Dumbledore or Professor Snape?
> 
> Potioncat
>
AM now - Not just Hogwarts; the wizarding world is dangerous. Lupin gets bitten as a child, and he is pretty much banished from society at a stroke - if Dumbledore hadn't accepted him at the school, his life would have been very limited. Neville is dangled out of windows 'to bring his magic on' - no one seems at all concerned that if he wasn't magical, he would have died; but then, he would have been a squib, and beneath everyone's consideration. Harry is left with abusive relatives because it serves to keep him alive. He gets Mrs. Figg as a guard, who has no magic, and no way of protecting him should, say, a Dementor be set upon him as a small child.
There seems an odd disconnect between the shrinking wizard world (is it shrinking? Perhaps the size of Hogwarts, too large for the current school-age population, was always too large, and was a grandiose idea of the Wizarding world expanding which never happened?) and the casual carelessness with which the children are treated. Even the Weasleys, with Molly's mother hen attitude, have the twins creating explosions and pranks in their bedroom.
As to your question, I think Dumbledore seems to take a Wizarding view of children - let them find out for themselves - and Snape, a more Muggle conventional view - they must be restricted in what they do.
Sorry - I sort of went off on a tangent.

AmanitaMuscaria