Question re Chapter 13 - The Secret Riddle

[snow15145]

Snow:
> I would think that a wizard of Dumbledore's caliber would want to
> test
> the waters
see the response for himself
to know who he is really
> dealing with given Tom's birthright gifts. To me it was nothing
> more
> than a test of Tom's reactions to wand like magic...


Magda: 
	
Yes I agree that that's WHY Dumbledore performed an act of magic but
why did he pick that SPECIFIC act, namely flaming Tom's wardrobe and
apparently destroying it? Would this not send a message to an
already clearly disturbed kid that when you've got a wand in your
hand you can wreak real destruction?

Why didn't Dumbledore - who is the transfiguration professor - change
the bed into a giant chicken? Why use an act of destruction to
demonstrate magic?

I still think it was an odd choice.


Snow:

It could be that what came after that scene is why Dumbledore 
specifically chose that particular object for his example of 
magic: "I think there is something trying to get out of your 
wardrobe." "And sure enough, a faint rattling could be heard from 
inside it. For the first time, Riddle looked frightened." Pg. 272 
U.S. 


Dumbledore may have achieved the goal in which he wished to 
accomplish because Riddle did react frightened when he was made to 
take out the shoebox with the activity still inside it until he 
emptied its contents onto his bed. Dumbledore may be proving to Tom 
that his previous private affairs are not so private anymore, in fact 
they are quite detectable and will not go unpunished if they 
continue. 

The objects in the box are quite suspicious though. Why did these 
objects have some life in them to rattle into motion? Are they people 
that had been transfigured into objects by Tom or did the objects 
become animate because of the magic that had been performed on the 
wardrobe? Probably one of those answers that is never going to matter 
in the whole scheme of things but its still curious. 

Snow