varying views of characters

[billy.wild1 at btinternet.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 190991

> Sherry:
> <snip> I got the impression through the series that Dumbledore was
what I called, the King of second chances and of believing the best
in many characters.  Yet, he stood back and let Sirius go to Azkaban
without a trial, without doing anything to discover the truth.  He
let Harry live with abusive unloving people all his life.  I didn't
really care about the blood protection either way, because I could
only think of Harry's miserable unloved childhood.  I probably feel
a lot like Molly Weasley might about that.  He didn't tell Harry the
truth about the prophecy till it was too late, till it got Sirius
killed.  He let Snape be a mean bully to his students.
>
> <snip>
> Dumbledore had one purpose throughout the series, to prepare Harry
to destroy Voldemort.  He was willing to sacrifice anything and
anyone else, and Harry, to achieve that goal.  That makes him
probably a very strong leader, but it doesn't mean I have to like
him or think of him as a great and noble man either.  He just is
> what he is.


Billy:
I definitely agree with the fact that all of the characters have
their merits & flaws, regardless of alignment and that it makes them
more realistic and human, though as for Dumbledore I don't think he
flat out just sat back and allowed Sirius to go to Azkaban - Harry
could've still lived with the Dursleys and got his blood protection
if Sirius was free - I just don't think there was enough evidence to
say otherwise. JKR herself said on her official site that it was
pretty much a done deal:

 "Sirius might have volunteered to take the potion had he been given
the chance, but he was never offered it. Mr. Crouch senior, power mad
and increasingly unjust in the way he was treating suspects, threw
him into Azkaban on the (admittedly rather convincing) testimony of
many eyewitnesses." - extract from http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/faq_view.cfm?id=105

I also don't see how the prophecy got Sirius killed, it was
completely accidental.

Also-also, you say "He was willing to sacrifice anything and anyone
else, and Harry, to achieve that goal." like it was a bad thing. Let
us remember that "that goal" was the eradication of the ultimate evil
(like, Holocaust level evil and up) from the world.  I think that
justifies some of his more unsavoury actions.

Billy