I read that reaction as being primarily to “Only now I understand, I know what Mother must have felt. She couldn’t step aside from the crib. She couldn’t! Love doesn’t walk away!” After all, Dumbledore’s on record as saying
Rather it is evil which does not know love, and dares not imagine love, and cannot ever understand love without ceasing to be evil. And I suspect that you can imagine your way into the minds of Dark Wizards better than I ever could, while still knowing love yourself.
Perhaps. I didn’t take D to be that infirm of purpose. D already knew that H sided with the Phoenix over wisdom, like the younger D that lost too many friends by softness, and so has been trying to guide H to wisdom. That may have been a “why would I seek to replace H’s morality when he’s driven by love,” but D knows why. It looked more to me like a “how can I seek to replace H’s morality when he’s driven by love”- clearly, this path will not work. But D still knows what must be done, and why it must be done, even if H is not yet willing to admit it.
Less “clearly this path won’t work”, more “I chose this path for bad reasons”—Dumbledore let it get to him, he was genuinely angry that an eleven year old was unwilling to sacrifice the life of his friend. Sort of “if I can’t be idealistic, neither can anyone else.”
Certainly possible. But H hasn’t presented any reason to be idealistic beyond, well, ideals. And so either D is hard, and is trying to figure out a way to get through to H, or D is soft, and has not learned his lesson well enough to teach it to H.
I am genuinely disappointed with how H botched this whole affair, and would turn that disappointment to anger if I thought it would change H’s behavior for the better.
I read that reaction as being primarily to “Only now I understand, I know what Mother must have felt. She couldn’t step aside from the crib. She couldn’t! Love doesn’t walk away!” After all, Dumbledore’s on record as saying
Perhaps. I didn’t take D to be that infirm of purpose. D already knew that H sided with the Phoenix over wisdom, like the younger D that lost too many friends by softness, and so has been trying to guide H to wisdom. That may have been a “why would I seek to replace H’s morality when he’s driven by love,” but D knows why. It looked more to me like a “how can I seek to replace H’s morality when he’s driven by love”- clearly, this path will not work. But D still knows what must be done, and why it must be done, even if H is not yet willing to admit it.
Less “clearly this path won’t work”, more “I chose this path for bad reasons”—Dumbledore let it get to him, he was genuinely angry that an eleven year old was unwilling to sacrifice the life of his friend. Sort of “if I can’t be idealistic, neither can anyone else.”
Certainly possible. But H hasn’t presented any reason to be idealistic beyond, well, ideals. And so either D is hard, and is trying to figure out a way to get through to H, or D is soft, and has not learned his lesson well enough to teach it to H.
I am genuinely disappointed with how H botched this whole affair, and would turn that disappointment to anger if I thought it would change H’s behavior for the better.
I view Dumbledore as having a hard shell around soft gooey insides. Lemon drop anyone?