Occlumency VERY VERY LONG

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 191728

 
> Alla:
>  I have no problem with that, what I disagree with is that Dumbledore needed to act a *certain way*, specifically put all his hopes in Harry's basket and leave him without any help and protection besides his two friends in that idiotic quest IMO.

Pippin:
He didn't put all his hopes in Harry's basket. The Order remained active, with orders to do whatever Harry asked of it. Harry could have asked the Order to kill the snake, to help get the locket from the ministry or the cup from  Gringotts, or for that matter to hunt down Mundungus Fletcher, all without violating Dumbledore's instructions.  

Trying to do it all on his own with just Ron and Hermione to help him was Harry's idiotic idea, not Dumbledore's. As a reader, I wanted to grab Harry by the shoulders and *make* him ask for help from Bill. But noooo, Harry is too noble to ask anybody he cares about to help him. He would rather make a dubious bargain with a goblin he knows doesn't like him very much. 

Harry was only told not to reveal what he knew from his lessons with Dumbledore. When he finally realized it was everyone else's fight too, he realized he could ask for help in locating or destroying objects without telling people why he wanted it done. 

Harry gives his reasons for wanting to destroy Voldemort, and it's nothing to do with how he was treated at the Dursleys or thinking Dumbledore is god. 

"Got to?" said Dumbledore. "Of course you've got to! But not because of the prophecy! Because you, yourself, will never rest till you've tried! We both know it! Imagine, please, just for a moment, that you have never heard that prophecy! How would you feel about Voldemort now? Think!"

Harry watched Dumbledore striding up and down in front of him and thought. He thought of his mother, his father, and Sirius. He thought of Cedric Diggory. He thought of all the terrible deeds he knew Lord Voldemort had done. A flame seemed to leap inside his chest, searing his throat.

"I'd want him finished," said Harry quietly. "And I'd want to do it."

That being the case, why not tell Harry what had to be done if he was to have any chance at all to survive?
 

> Pippin: 
> >  Should Snape have let Harry go unprotected until someone with sufficiently lofty motives appeared to do the job? 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> I think Snape should have known that he does not have at least a mindset to do the job, even if he has skills. I know you think Snape's mindset is unimportant, as long as he did the job, but we just have to agree to disagree on that.

Pippin:
It's not that I think his mindset is unimportant. It's just that I don't see that as a rationale for refusing to protect someone when you have the opportunity. The real life person I think of in this regard is Oskar Schindler. In a lot of ways he was a more "deeply horrible person" than Snape could ever be.  But he is honored as a righteous Gentile nonetheless. If he had refused to save "his" Jews because he'd exploited their labor and cooperated with their oppression and profited from their captivity, who would that have helped?

Pippin