Dumbledore/LONG and bad, SKIP if you do not feel like reading it :-)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 191035

 
> Alla:
> 
> Canon is that Dumbledore gives the lesson about fear of the name only increases fear of the person. But he does not teach to call him his proper name. Yes, they are afraid of his killing skills, but first and foremost they are afraid of his name, no? I think that this fear at least could have been easily diminished by Dumbledore.

Pippin:
They're afraid to say "Voldemort" -- so that's the name Dumbledore uses, to show that no one need be afraid to say it. If he said 'Tom' instead, he'd still be avoiding "Voldemort". He might as well say "Lord Thingy". 

As Dobby says, before the Dark Lord changed his name, he could be named freely.

> Alla:
> 
> No. I would never say that he should go near Dursleys and do anything to them, if he did not place Harry with them. Actually I have not even said that he should torture him. But threatening with anything he thinks will make them obey - ABSOLUTELY. Lesson or not, Harry is the only one truly innocent here, and protecting a baby in my mind trumps anything else.

Pippin:
I'm afraid I don't share your belief in threats. Threats in canon work for a while and then are shown to be worse than useless. 

Reliance on threats is  a sign of weakness -- it means you are afraid to do the thing you are threatening to do  --  and sooner or later the other person is going to figure that out.  And Petunia is Lily's sister, she knows cowardice when she sees it.

 And we did see Dumbledore trying other means of protection and they did not work. As I said, Harry was snatched away from Hogwarts, right in front of Dumbledore, the Weasleys, Sirius and the Ministry and the heads of two other wizarding schools. 

And yes, protecting the baby trumps everything else. Except what the baby really needs to be protected from is Voldemort, because what he can do is much worse than anything Petunia is likely to attempt. She's willing to sacrifice Harry to her obsession, but her obsession is looking respectable, not seeing how much cruelty and murder she can get away with. 

I wonder why she let Harry get away with threatening to use magic even though she knew it was forbidden. I guess she was afraid to admit just how much she knew about the WW. 
 
> > Pippin:
> > LOL. Harry is the most famous person in the WW and inquiring minds want to know how he survived the killing curse. Give them half a chance and they'll  try to examine Harry  whether Dumbledore lets them  or not. I always wondered why Dumbledore didn't have Harry checked out by a healer when he started complaining about his scar. 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> I am sure those inquiring minds you are talking about still wanted to know that when Harry arrived in WW, I do not remember them succeeding.

Pippin:
That's because by the time Harry returned to the WW he knew enough not to tell people when freaky things happened, like his scar hurting or being able to hear voices that no one else could hear, or having dreams where Quirrell's turban was squeezing his head and telling him he ought to be in Slytherin. 

Then when the news finally did get out, it was more in Fudge's interest to treat Harry as a deluded child being encouraged by Dumbledore rather than to find out what was actually wrong with him. 

Pippin