Once more - with questions. part 1

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "snow15145" <kking0731 at ...> wrote:
> Snow:
>
> Oh yes! And yes Dumbledore has been hiding information...or should I
> say shelving it out as the boy seems fit to handle it! Just look at
> one excerpt from HBP, wherein Harry is outraged over Trelawney's
> enlightenment that Snape was the culprit who heard and reported the
> newsworthy info to the boss. What did Dumbledore say as his reply to
> Harry:
>
> "When did you find out about this?" pg 548 U.S. (The Seer Overheard)
>
> Dumbledore knew all along (as he always does) and only gives Harry
> the bare minimal facts. (Don't want to mess with the power of choice
> you know)
>
>snip interesting selection of material>

Oh, yes.
Tell Harry as little as possible - mushroom mangement par exellence.
(Though the 'eavesdropper' incident is one of the four or five itches 
I'm intending to have another scratch at.) But in general, whatever 
the actual sequence of events the result is the same - DD says as 
little as possible and on closer analysis the actual words/phrasing 
aren't as enlightening as one first assumed - which is just how Jo 
likes it, much to our continuing frustration. 

>
> Is Dumbledore wielding a plan that concerns the boy or is he simply
> protecting the boy and allowing him to choose his own path?
>
> My vote would be that Dumbledore has a plan; in fact, I believe he
> mentions it in OOP during his great prophecy speech.
>

Agreed.
He has a plan, he's had one from the start and Harry is integral to it.
We have to assume that it will take more than just magic to beat 
Voldy - otherwise DD as the numero uno magikmeister would have 
been able to stroll out and nail the bugger any time he wanted to. 
He didn't, yet in the MoM battle Voldy was the one under pressure, 
not DD. 
Something more is needed, and Harry either has it/will have it/is 
part of it.

plan (OED)
4a - An organised and esp. detailed method according to which
something is to be done; a scheme of action, a design; an intention;
a proposed proceeding. Also, loosely, a way of proceeding.

To some fans the plan is quite simple - defeat Voldy.
Erm.... no. That's not a plan, that's an aspiration, an aim.
Nor do the 'victories' in the sporadic encounters with Voldy and his
dastardly hench-wizards throughout the series count as a plan IMO.
They're tactical skirmishes, a concatenation of incidents local in
space and in time, mostly reactive rather than pro-active (horrible
term, that), and as such are unlikely to be more than incidental
to a Master Plan. More about keeping Harry alive than in getting
Voldy dead.

True, fend off Voldy's attacks often enough and his options may
start to get somewhat limited - and in HBP the Horsecrutch hunt
is a DD initiative that could force further limitations on Voldy by
eliminating the reincarnation ploy, so that when the crunch comes
it's do or die for Voldy. But has it weakened Voldy? Will it make it 
easier for Harry to zap him come High Noon in Hogsmead? No.
Harry still has to be able to beat him (we assume). The absence 
of Hosscruxes merely ensures that when Voldy is beaten there'll 
be no replays.

A long time ago I observed that there were times when it seemed
that DD had already read the script, that he knew of events before
they heaved up over the horizon and that perhaps his function 
was to make sure that it all stayed on the rails, that there was no
deviation from a fairly specific 'foreseen' progression. Not only 
mentor but also monitor. And one of his functions was to prevent 
anyone else pre-empting events and (perhaps) cocking things up.
So Harry (nor anyone else) gets told anything that could trigger
premature activities. Good job too; he'd only mess it up. 

It's an idea that has its attractions, though since it would 
probably involve my two least favourite plot devices (time-travel
and/or fool-proof prophesying) it doesn't get my blood pounding
from excitement. 

However, one thing is clear - DD has had Harry on an accelerated
learning programme. And occasionally he's learnt the necessary 
skills just in time to avoid disaster. For sure Harry is 'it', the 
culmination of DD's schemes. Though whether 'it' is Weapon!Harry,
Pawn!Harry or Sacrifice!Harry, or how it is intended to play out, is 
still up for grabs.


> It isn't like children haven't been used before. No one wants to
> acknowledge a child being used to such a circumstance but the Order
> realizes that "there are things worth dying for!"
> OOP 477 (St. Mungo's...)
>

Interesting you should say that.
Has any child died within the time sequence of the books?
Myrtle was decades back and Diggory was 17 and therefore an
adult in WW terms. Authorial distaste? Probably. 
"No child has been killed in the writing of this epic." 
But Harry is no longer a child, he's an adult. 
So are his friends.
How nice. 
How encouraging.
How..... fatal?


> Snow – glad to see Kneasy ruffling some old feathers although I would
> like it better if he shook up the main list again...they need big
> time shake up...You never no what you might get!
>

Kind of you to say so, but no, I'll not be going back to tol, 
despite it offering the opportunity to rattle a lot more cages than
here on toc.


Kneasy