Snipping Puppetmaster!DD

[annemehr]

Boyd:
> > Ah, yes, the eternal HPfGU question: is DD a scheming Puppetmaster
or merely
> > a powerful wizard? Do we believe that DD is so smart that he has
caused
> > Weapon!Harry to be, or at least positioned him for success?

Kneasy:
> Mind you, there are variants on the Puppetmaster Theory  and the one
> I espouse doesn't postulate that DD manouevres Harry in every situation.
> Nor does DD direct every jot and tittle of his existence. Deary me, no.
> Just the important stuff.

Annemehr:
So do I take it that the following list is the important stuff? Let's
look at parts of it:


> Old Magic protection - which *requires* the death of Lily to work.

Which doesn't mean it was the objective all along - it could have been
the contingency plan. "Listen, if Voldy finds you, you and James are
dead meat.  There is still a way you can protect Harry, though. 
Here's what you have to do..."

> Placement at Privet Drive - a place so unpleasant that he leaps at
Hogwarts
> as an escape.

Ye-es.  Or, it's another part of the contingency plan - the blood
protection.  Though we seem to have some conflicting information about
that particular charm.  (Talisman, did you ever write that post about
this? *is hopeful*)

> A wand with Fawkes's feather- what a coincidence, it matches Voldy's.

Although DD of course could arrange for any number of matching
Fawkes-feather wands, how on earth is he supposed to have caused one
to match Harry?  I grant you he may have *forseen* that one made of
Holly might match, once Harry was born, but not caused it.

[...]
> Just happens to be aware that Voldy 'powers' have been transferred
to Harry.
> Riiiight. When did he know? During the 24 hours, perhaps?

I don't know. I don't see how you can lay it at Dumbledore's feet,
though. But you have just grazed by one of my few pet theories -- that
the power of possession is one of LV's powers that was transferred. 
Just thought I'd mention that, in case it comes true. ;)


> 
> Suggests use of the Time-turner for Harry (a neophyte) to save himself.
> Why not go himself? Anybody else think there was back-up in the bushes?

I assume he had to send Harry because 1) he knew Buckbeak had been
saved and 2) he knew he hadn't done it himself.  Snape was right - it
was all Potter's doing.  DD may have been skulking in the bushes,
though, for all we know. Or Snape, if you're feeling MDish.


> Does bugger all when the Goblet in GoF is obviously fixed.[...]

Yep. Are we meant to believe that Harry truly was under a binding
magical contract?  Many scoff at the idea, but I can't decide.


> 
> Reveals the Prophecy, tells Harry what he is expected to do.

Yes (except I think he was wrong).

Out of your list, it's only the when and how of telling the prophecy
that I can absolutely ascribe to DD's manipulation. Maybe sending
Hagrid to deliver Harry's letter, too (but only because Hagrid is just
what DD needs, as I don't believe Hagrid is much of an actor). But I
would add to that the gift of the invisibility cloak and a certain
disregard for rulebreaking.  Some of the other things (Godric's
Hollow, Pettigrew) are possibilities but might have other explanations.

[...]
> 
> DD whitters on about choices. He just hasn't allowed many to Harry.
> Not big stuff, anyway. His business has been in forging and putting an
> edge on Weapon!Harry. He has no choice, there is no other
alternative, not
> since Godric's Hollow.

Choices again!  He doesn't whitter on about choices.  He said once
that choices *show* who we are.  Not *make us* who we are, but *show.*
 In other words, Harry chose "not Slytherin," and that shows us that
he was, indeed, not a Slytherin.  He was a Gryffindor all along.

Who really has all that many choices anyway?  Lots of life is not what
you choose, but what happens to you.  Then you get to choose what to
do about it.  Harry nearly always gets to choose what to do about what
happens to him.


> But. Yep. There's a but. 
> DD can't control or predict one important thing.
> The Voldy fragment that's in Harry. That's the wild card. That could
screw 
> his plans completely. I'm willing to bet it was that invader than
affected
> Harry's attitudes in OoP - stroppy, stubborn, argumentative, and
resulting
> in the Occlumency cock-up.

I'm not sure I buy a Voldy-fragment in Harry.  I'm betting it's more
of a mind-link.  In CoS, Dumbledore said Voldy transferred some of his
powers to Harry. Harry said there was a bit of Voldy in him.  Who are
you going to believe?  Dumbledore?  Harry?  Neither?

Harry certainly felt LV's curiousity re the DoM and his hatred of
Dumbledore, but this does not require a bit of LV to be inside Harry.
 After all, LV felt Harry's horror during the snake attack on Arthur
without a bit of Harry inside him (or is there?  Was there an exchange
of grey matter?)  I don't know, I think we need more information on
this one.

Stroppy, now - that doesn't need to be LV at all.  I like stroppy.  A
perfect combination of James' arrogance and Lily's determination,
perhaps.  It kept him sure of his right to exist despite ten years of
the Dursleys' insistence otherwise.  It sent him after the Stone, and
into the Chamber, and it sent him out from behind the gravestone to
meet Volemort's AK with Expelliarmus. It has this interesting and
frustrating side-effect of maintaining his belief the conclusions he's
leapt to despite new evidence to the contrary.  I like it much better
than Voldy-thingy's peevishness: "The AK I fired at you bounced off
and hit me, and that hurt, and IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"  For fifteen
years now. Yeesh. At least when Harry's peevish, it's only temporary.


Back to Dumbledore and his manoeuverings, though.  Like I said, it's
hard to tell how deep it goes with Harry.  But maybe we can broaden
the field, instead.  We have the clear indication in CoS that DD was
involved in the life of young Tom Riddle.  He made James and Lily Head
Boy and Girl.  That would give him an excuse to get more involved with
them personally, and groom them for membership in the Order (at the
very least, and at a very young age) - not to mention including their
best friends Sirius and Peter as well.  More than likely, he was
important in Snape's life at the time, too - gives Snape a basis for
turning to DD when he left the DEs.  And finally, we have Harry and
the prophecy.

A list of proteges and charges like this makes him seem more fallible
than, say, MD!Dumbledore -- or at least, that he's gotten a lot better
at manipulation since the old days.  He lost Tom and Peter.  He lost
Snape for a while, too.  Lily and James are dead - regrettable whether
you think he arranged it out of necessity or tried unsuccessfully to
prevent it.

I wonder who else DD may be "guiding" through life?  Ernie McMillan
was in his office; he talked to the paintings.  Who knows what
relationship he has with Neville? Or had with the Longbottoms? Lucius
or Draco?  Percy? The guy never seems to teach any classes -- I wonder
what he's doing all day?

Well, that went on longer than I expected - it's late, and I'm feeling
kind of foggy.  Wonder if I've made any sense?

*hits Send*

Annemehr
(having Faith in Bangs, George, Mystery, *and* Themes, all at once)