Dumbledore questions...

[Annemehr]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "susiequsie23" 
<susiequsie23 at ...> wrote:

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 Hmmmmm
 Does this buy me enough
 Spoiler space
 To do the trick?
 

 
> With Dumbledore, however, I could use some help from others.  
> <snip>

> What I'm not sure works for me is how he ended up the man that we 
saw in books 1-6, and the man we saw at the end when Harry spoke with 
him after dying/*not* dying/letting Voldy kill him... um, you know 
where I am in the story.  Was enough shown to us for us to understand 
how teenaged & early-adult DD *changed*?  He obviously held onto some 
of his self-concerns (witness his remark about understanding he 
should not become MfM because he shouldn't grasp too much power).  
But he clearly changed from some of those earlier positions re: 
wizards first and all he shared with Grindelwald and what *mattered* 
in this life.  
> 
> So how did that happen?  Are we to assume that his sister's death 
was IT? was the turning point? (perhaps as Dobby's death was for 
Harry in his process?)  Was that *sufficient* for him to begin 
questioning Grindelwald and all that they, together, had said really 
mattered and was worth pursuing?
> 
> I suppose that's it.  I suppose we're supposed to see that?  But 
was that enough?  Was that enough to have turned DD from that person 
he was at 18 or 20 into the man who could speak with apparently deep 
& true conviction about the treatment of others (centaurs, house 
elves, muggle-borns, etc.)?   I suppose his having lived through it 
*does* add a measure of weight to his statements regarding CHOICES, 
regarding choosing what is right over what is easy, as well as his 
belief in second chances (having needed a mighty one himself).
> 

Anne:

At first, I didn't *want* Puppetmaster!DD -- I was conscripted onto 
that vessel.  But the clues were in the text, and the DD that Snape 
and Harry came to know in the end seemed very true to form.  

I think his sister's death would be enough of a catalyst to *begin* 
the change, in a man who is at all honest with himself -- her death, 
and what Aberforth had to say to him before and afterward about what 
was important.

Obviously, he wouldn't immediately go from "For the Greater Good" and 
muggle-domination plans to the openness to Muggles and other Beings 
of books 1-7, just because his co-conspirator sparked the disaster 
that killed his sister.  But don't forget, about 130 years had 
elapsed between that day and the day we met him on Privet Drive.

Older and wiser though he may have been, though, he *still* put on 
the death-stone ring because it was one of the Hallows.  Did he think 
he would call Ariana back?  Did he succeed?  Either way, this act 
showed that he was still the same man he always was, no matter how 
well he learned to moderate himself, and, perhaps, how well he 
learned what "the greater good" was -- and wasn't.

Like that 17-year-old long ago, he still acted for the greater good; 
he'd only modified his belief in what the greater good consisted of. 
He still weilded power over others; he only modified the extent, and 
reasons for which, he was willing to use it.

That's how I see it, anyway.  I'll even say that the gentle and kind 
old man he looked to be at first glance is the man he may have liked 
to have been, if he didn't consider himself compelled to deal with 
Voldemort.

Anne