“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Now be honest…..if your child were attending a school like Hogwarts, wouldn’t you think Dumbledore a tad incompetent? For a man who is has been around children as long as Dumbledore has, he knows very little about them or how they work.

Anyway, I’ve been round and round on the house cup ceremony before, and I’m just not convinced of Dumbledore’s guilt in the matter – but primarily because I think it was a place where dramatic storytelling won out, however, slightly, over character consistency for Rowling. It was the first book after all.

I’ll be working through PoA in the next month or so, and I’ll check that scene with Snape then.

I also don’t especially like Dumbledore’s cruelty to Snape at the end of POA, and he really is cruel. Try looking at that scene from Snape’s pov. Yes, he is almost irrational – but he has been concussed*, has just relived one of the worst experiences of his childhood, and has again been denied justice against one of his tormentors. We need to remember that *Snape* does not know Sirius is innocent. It seems to me that Dumbledore could have been kinder to him.

I also sympathized very strongly with Harry in OOTP, and it seems to me the whole mess at the ministry, and Sirius’s death, could have been avoided had Dumbledore simply *talked* to the boy a great deal earlier than he did. His treatment of Harry in this book was unwittingly cruel, I think.

So – I absolutely believe Dumbledore is, basically, a good man. But he is sometimes unwittingly callous in the way he treats both Severus and Harry, and they both resent it. I don’t blame them.

But, that said, a point someone made above is totally correct. Dumbledore’s not omniscient, and he’s certainly not all-powerful. He’s only a man, after all, and no human being on this earth is perfect. That he’s been wrong, sometimes, in the way he treats his young proteges doesn’t make him evil. But I really do think he can be manipulative at times. That’s not the same as evil.

(And I love brussels sprouts! Don’t love all fanfic – some of it’s the weirdest stuff I’ve ever seen -, but it’s not all bad, either.)

I avoid fan fiction like brussel sprouts. Scary stuff, that is.

i was shocked at how many people wrote this ‘manipulative underhanded’ dumbledore.

i love dumbledore. jkr loves dumbledore.

it confuses me really.

jo

I do believe that Dumbledore is giving Harry opportunities to do certain things, opportunities which may be unwise, but he’s certainly not forcing Harry to action. Giving the invisibility cloak to Harry doesn’t mean he’s setting Harry up to face Voldemort (in fact, Harry uses it for other purposes, and sometimes for mischief that has nothing to do with Voldemort).

Indeed, to posit manipulativeness on Dumbledore’s part, you have to assume omniscience. And that’s definitely not the case. Do you think he knew about Quirrelmort? Do you think he would not have done something if he knew, instead of waiting til the end of the year? He didn’t know about the truth of Pettigrew until Harry told his story. He didn’t know that Moody was an impostor. Dumbledore’s power and knowledge has limits – he’s mortal.

If you think DD is all-knowing, then yeah, he’s evil & manipulative for letting all that stuff go on and not do anything about it.

So says Ms. Rowling. (via The Leaky Cauldron – wait for the jump)
TLC also reports on JKR’s press conference this week in New York City. There are transcrips and photos, so go check it out. (Once the post comes up, check the sidebar on the right for…

In my personal oppinion, leaking part of the prophecy doesn’t seem like something DD would do unless he felt that by doing so he could turn the tables on LV with the least amount of victims. (Sacrificing a few for the good of more.) Since letting LV roam about unchecked was not an option if anyone were to survive, something needed to be done and quickly. As DD happend to be one of the few in the right place at the right time, he made the best move he could think of.

The fact that DD’s strategic move against LV required the use “pawns” of a sort (i.e. Harry and his parents etc…) doesn’t necessarily mean he had to “manipulate” or “ill use” them as part of his strategy, as many assume. I believe the Potters and the Longbottoms would have willingly participated in said plan givin the opportunity, both for their sons’ survival and for the lives of others, so why should DD, the most trusting man in the world, do otherwise? Naturally every possible protection known would have been provided. This is not only consistant with the inner workings of a true great leader, but with the DD I see. DD’s belief in the power of personal choice, or free agency as some of us would call it, attests to such a man.

Since Harry (or Neville) wasn’t around or even old enough to concent to the plan at the time of it’s conception, perhaps DD and the others went on with plans as they felt “the chosen one’s” involvement was already guarenteed per the prophecy. Now that DD has come to see things differently (i.e. that the prophecy may in fact only be fueled by one’s belief in it), he may feel some guilt for Harry’s now LV enforced involvement. After all, were it not for DD’s intersession, LV wouldn’t have necessarily gone after Harry according to DD’s current speculations. DD may yet be seeking Harry’s blessing and concent after the fact, which is the next best thing. Furthermore, DD’s slowness to let Harry know all of the details may not only be related to Harry’s maturity and abilities issues, but the guilty anguish that comes about when trying to break tragic news of a perseived betrayal gently. DD knows that dumping everything on Harry all at once might overwhelm him with hate, anger, and fear, all feelings that are detrimental to the boys survival. Additionally, the fact that DD tries to destroy the ring horcrux himself tells me that he seeks to lighten Harry’s load. Manipulators NEVER attempt to seek what is best for the other person, only their self.