PoA Chapter Six

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

The first thing Harry notices the next day is that Draco Malfoy is doing impressions of him fainting to laughing crowds. I know this joke will soon get old and people will stop laughing? But I can’t believe they’re even laughing at it now. Either Draco Malfoy is a comic genius and we just don’t hear the routine that goes with the fainting, or wizards have been seriously warped without TV, literature or theater. What teenagers would find this funny?

I mean, as much as I hate to defend HBP!Ginny, her impression of Harry falling off his broom at least had a context to explain why it was funny. The joke was that Harry was bellowing at people when he got socked in the head with a metal ball that should have killed him. Nobody saw Harry faint and there was nothing funny going on at the time.

Pansy Parkinson has a face like a pug. And totally deserves it.

Harry consoles himself with the fact that the only time he and Malfoy faced each other at Quidditch, Malfoy definitely came off the worst. I’ll bet he feels even better when he remembers that the same is true for just about anybody stupid enough to play Quidditch with Harry.

How was McGonagall expecting Hermione to keep this secret about the Time Turner, btw? Even if she doesn’t really have any friends besides Harry and Ron, it’s not like she doesn’t make herself noticeable in class. Don’t tell me that not once during the year did two students not complain about her in conflicting classes to each other and figure it out.

My canon is now that the whole school except Harry and Ron knew that Hermione was using a Time Turner. Several of them even stole it a few times to do something fun.

Oh god, here comes Hagrid swinging a dead polecat. Because he only likes giant predators.

On their way to Divination they pass a painting that’s kind of a Don Quixote rip-off.

I don’t care what anyone says. I like the way Trelawney decorates her room.

The fog in the room makes Harry feel sleepy and stupid. Which might be the most self-aware Harry has ever been.

Harry predicts Ron might work for the MoM. He could be right. Maybe Ron’s just got 3 jobs instead of the 2 he gets in post-DH interviews.

Once again Hermione randomly decides that something is illogical while accepting that she can turn a frog into a teacup by waving a stick over it. And naturally she’s kind of right.

Or not. If Trelawney's seeing a big, black dog in Harry’s tealeaves, she’s right. And in HBP she was batting something like .397.

McGonagall then announces that Trelawney’s an idiot and Divination is worthless. Harry Potter: So awesome he makes useless subjects true!

Seriously, all Trelawney's true predictions center around Harry. Which I guess validates the centaurs views as well.

McGonagall also says Trelawney predicts a student’s death every year. Ron must be silently resenting why she had to pick Harry this year, stealing what he’d think was his one chance to be the center of interest.

I do like the implication that Hermione really does dislike Divination because she can’t be good at it, but since it really does seem to be a crock, I can’t like it that much. It seems to basically just be a class for poseurs who like putting on an act.

Ron and Hermione aren’t speaking to each other now. I'm sure the crazy hot make-up sex is the heart of their marriage.

Oh god, give me a second to gird my loins for Hagrid’s dumb class.

If you’re waiting for any parallel to be drawn between Draco’s attitude towards Hagrid and Hermione’s attitude towards Trelawney, stop. They’re exact opposites, because Hagrid’s a noble drunk and Trelawney’s a useless drunk. Or something. Also Hagrid’s a half-giant and Malfoy’s a jerk.

Yup, Malfoy’s a total jerk, even calling into question Hagrid’s being qualified to teach class.

Hagrid leads up the animals and introduces them by saying the first thing to know about ‘em is that they’re proud, so don’t insult one or it’s the last thing you’ll do. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle are whispering in an undertone, the same way Harry and Hermione and Ron have done a dozen times before. Only it’s totally different to do it in this class, so what happens is totally their fault.

I have to go off on this here, because in the past I’ve gotten in tons of long, detailed lectures on how peoples’ riding instructors gave speeches on how dangerous horses were where they made sure everyone was paying attention, and made everyone show they knew the rules, and watched everyone carefully and if they did anything wrong they made them sit out for the day. Only it’s given as an explanation for how Malfoy is wrong here, as if that’s not exactly what Hagrid doesn’t do, and his whole schtick isn’t not getting how dangerous animals are so treating them as if they’re not.

Hagrid’s class isn’t really going over well, so Harry has to step in to back him up. I guess to repay Hagrid for all those times he almost got Harry killed or got Harry in trouble and felt no responsibility for it.

For all the stuff about hippogriffs being proud, apparently they’re okay with Hagrid dumping a kid on their back and slapping them on the ass. I guess since it’s Harry it’s a compliment.

Harry has a big ride full of wonder, proving that if you’re a Gryffindor all animals are glorified taxi services.

Now that Hagrid’s demonstrated proper behavior by treating the hippogriff really carelessly, he sends all the kids into the paddock en masse. What would he have done if they’d all had a chance to take off?

Luckily Malfoy calls Buckbeak a “big ugly brute” (much the way one would probably speak to a beloved pit bull) and the thing rips a big gash in his arm, probably heading off a greater catastrophe. Neville was inches from a meltdown with his own animal.

The Slytherins yell about Hagrid being sacked, proving they suck. These are the type of people who would complain about their kid being petrified in school instead of seeing it as character-building. Probably like child proof medicine caps as well.

The Gryffindors, with Malfoy’s blood still wet on the grass, say it was his fault. Okay yeah, obviously the thing was reacting to Malfoy insulting it like he wasn’t supposed to, but could their little black hearts be smaller or stingier? It’s not even like Malfoy gets sympathy until his dad calls for the animal to be put down (since nobody actually cares about the animal besides Hagrid anyway). They immediately blame the victim.

Harry’s had far worse injuries healed by the nurse. All Harry’s injuries are worse, really, because Slytherin injuries don’t count. You have to have a soul to feel.

“Trust Malfoy to mess things up for [Hagrid],” says Ron, which would be okay if that didn’t seem to be the official reading of the scene. To review: the dozen things Hagrid did to create an obviously crazy unsafe environment for 13-year-olds and wild animals are mistakes any new teacher would make. Malfoy’s mild snottiness and acting like a 13-year-old is unforgivable, indicative of his evil nature and deserving of severe punishment.

In fact, obviously he planned to be attacked to hurt Hagrid. Just like he’ll intentionally force Harry to attack in OotP. Buckbeak and Harry are the real victims here. Draco’s just a master of making people hurt him.

Back at dinner, Harry thinks the Slytherins are cooking up their own version of how Malfoy got injured. Which must be where the whole “Malfoy lied” story always comes up, but I don’t see why Malfoy has to lie (even if he’s malingering, the injury speaks for itself so they can check it).

Note we never exactly hear this “Slytherin version” yet there’s always this vague implication that it’s ruining everything for poor Hagrid. Even though the attack had a dozen witnesses, one of whom was Harry Potter, and pensieves exist.

Hagrid deals with the challenge by drinking—-all the more reason his teaching job should be protected apparently.

Why is it that weakness is so often treated with total contempt while Hagrid sits crying in his beer and blaming his troubles on other people and still sits in the center of the inner circle? I think it’s because Hagrid’s like a pet or a baby so has special license to be pathetic.

Naturally the Trio’s all ready to back Hagrid up. It’s Malfoy’s fault he wasn’t listening. Just like it was Ron’s fault for getting bitten by Hagrid’s dragon. And every student’s fault they didn’t know to stroke their books.

The only reason I can even read this annoying chapter again is that at least I know JKR wrote Hagrid as an unpopular teacher that even the Trio eventually admit is terrible.

Also, weird as it sounds, Malfoy spends the rest of his school career listening very carefully in CoMC. Which I’m sure is a sign of cowardice? But is actually one of the book’s only examples of someone learning something from a mistake!

To review, since obviously this scene bugs me, I don’t have a problem with Malfoy getting a lesson in what happens when you don’t listen in class, or when you dick around with wild animals. (Even if what he did couldn’t actually be considered dicking around in any real sense of the word.) But the way Hagrid immediately gets turned into this innocent victim we’re supposed to rally around so he never has to learn anything drives me nuts. And then people wonder why there are fans who think Slytherins might as well be jackasses since the only time the heroes aren’t happy to watch them die is when they see a chance to dramatically rescue them for their own egos.

Things happening twice:

Ron points out Hermione is scheduled for 3 classes at once. Later she and Harry will be in two places at once.
McGonagall mentions Animagi and turns into one, just like Sirius will. Also transformation turns Lupin into a wolf and Peter into a rat.
Ron has a Great Uncle Bilius and that turns out to be his middle name.
Draco’s attitude in Hagrid’s class, though condemned, is pretty parallel with Hermione’s at Divination.
Harry rides the hippogriff, because he’s going to have to do that again later.
Buckbeak’s slashing will be totally outdone by Harry’s own slashing of Malfoy in HBP.
Also in sixth year Draco will again wind up in a pool of his own blood due to a combination of his own behavior and a Gryffindor’s actions, and again the Slytherins will be seen as making Harry’s life hard by caring.
We meet Sir Cadogan here because he’s going to fill in for the Fat Lady later.
Harry barely listens in Transformation and Malfoy barely listens in CoMC, but everyone knows the first is normal and the second is idiotic because WILD ANIMALS!

It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!.
Trelawney’s prediction to Parvati
Beware a red-haired man!
Status: Dud. If only it had been Lavender!
McGonagall’s lesson
Status: 20 gun salute. Harry barely listens to McGonagall telling them that Animagi are wizards who can transform into animals, and barely watches her demonstration as she does it herself, because it’s going to be really important.




Designated Hero
We can tell they’re the good guys because they have no compassion for kids whose injuries either benefit, amuse, bore or cause problems for them and their friends while the compassion they show to innocents is lovingly highlighted.

IITS
How come Divination is arbitrarily the one kind of magic that doesn’t really work? It’s in the script.

"Watermelon, watermelon, cantaloupe, cantaloupe"
I’m sure there were a lot of angry watermelons and cantaloupes coming from the Slytherins in that last scene.

Jabootu Score: 3

Comments

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

the prophecy does not mean you have to do anything!

I got a very strange impression from these words: Isn´t this exactly the way Harry won - sitting on his hands and doing nothing, while waiting for Voldemort to kill him?

Hmm, probably Dumbledore understood that prophecy quite well... ;o)) Probably he got with these words as close as he could to saying "you do not need to do anything but let yourself to be killed by your enemy, and all will be well".

(/ dark humour)

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

*gak*

So, with the prophecy, Harry did nothing ... and won.

And, had there not been a prophecy ... he would still have done nothing, and won?

Actually neither the prophecy nor Dumbledore's 'Quest' nor Beedle's tales nor Hermione's books said that Harry should wait until a militant house elf stormed Malfoy Manor and knocked a chandelier down on top of Draco Malfoy and then grab Draco's wand out of his hand, so nothing in the entire series, all seven books, really mattered. :-)

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

I hate the bussiness with the Elder Wand. It does not make any sense.

And, had there not been a prophecy ... he would still have done nothing, and won?
Probably not. Had there be no prophecy, Dumbledore would have to invent one. Otherwise Dumbledore would have to do something actively, and not wait for Voldemort to hange himself. ;o))

Actually, I don´t know.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Had there be no prophecy, Dumbledore would have to invent one.

ITA. And had the prophecy not been overheard Dumbles would have lured Tom into acting on it anyway. After all, even without knowing about Rookwood, how long could the Twinkly expect Tom not to learn there was a record of a prophecy concerning him and which was made in Dumbles' presence in the DOM? So whatever actions Albus took would have been interpreted by Tom in terms of Mystery Prophecy.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Otherwise Dumbledore would have to do something actively, and not wait for Voldemort to hange himself.

You might have meant it in jest, but I think you've hit on the HUGE reason why we had to put up with seven books of Harry Potter. It was the prophecy that caused Dumbledore to sit down and *wait* for the appointed saviour to turn up. He/Rowling even tries to justify it in DH:

"So the boy…the boy must die?" asked Snape quite calmly.

"And Voldemort himself must do it, Severus. That is essential."

Another long silence. Then Snape said, "I thought…all those years…that we were protecting him for her. For Lily."

"We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength," said Dumbledore, his eyes still tight shut.

That whole passage is just full of fail; Rowling trying to pull the wool over her readers' eyes, trying to convince them that the whole series made sense. There was absolutely no reason for it to be "essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength" over all those books if, in fact, Dumbledore knew that he was fated to be a sacrificial lamb all along. Okay, Dumbledore only suspected the horcrux thing since, oh, GoF I think, but given that the headmaster also had no faith in the prophecy, didn't believe in prophecies - although he allowed two Order members to die in protecting the prophecy - there was no reason I can see for Harry to have been coddled so long.

Other than the template of a series of seven books, one for each school year, that is.

And the thing about it being 'essential' that 'Voldemort himself' kill Harry ... that was silly too. Anyone could kill Harry to eliminate the bit of Riddle's soul within him. And deus ex machina #182, the 'shared blood' that let Harry bounce back to life ... that would have worked regardless of who killed him too.

This second issue is the most egregious of Rowling's bluffs. It's in just this one sentence that she tries to justify herself to any fan who might question why he's spent 12+ years reading seven books to get to the Harry/Voldemort forest scene. It was ESSENTIAL that there were seven Harry Potter books years of schooling for Harry, so that he could "try his strength", even though Dumbledore PLANNED for him to be sacrificed. And it was ESSENTIAL that Voldemort be the one to kill Harry. We're supposed to just accept this - because it's DUMBLEDORE speaking - even though Dumbledore never tells us why or gives us reasons. Because those reasons don't exist. Other than "because Rowling wanted a neat seven-book series, and why, it HAD to end up with Harry versus Riddle, just because!".

Just these couple of sentences from Dumbledore are supposed to be enough to hold up the entire series.

Dumbledore never even tries to mention the prophecy here as the reason for all that time, and why it must be Riddle who kills Harry. Rowling only paid a couple of sentences' lip service to the prophecy in the last two books. But I dare say, if you were to ask the fans, a lot of them would say "oh, Dumbledore HAD to wait (for Harry to grow up, to do seven years of school), because the prophecy said so!". So I think you've hit on a neat point there, even if you were being facetious. :-)

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Oh it's worse than that. My post HBP theory was that Albus deliberately let the prophecy escape, in order to goad Tom into taking unwise action and shooting himself in the foot.

Frankly, Tom had all but won at that point. If there had been no prophecy, he probably *would* have openly taken the Ministry down and set himself in its place. Albus may not have much faith in Prophecies, but that one was the closest thing to a ray of hope he'd seen in years, and he was willing to gamble on it, even if he did realize that to meddle with it would mean his ruin as well as Tom's.

Otherwise, knowing that the Ministry's policy on prophecies was to supress them, why did he have Snape in his custody and then *let him go* without obliviating him? We know that Albus will permit an Obliviate in an emergency. If Snape was not already his own agent among the DEs (which I thought very probable) then why turn him loose with the knowledge that a Prophecy existed? He knew who Snape was. He may not have known he was a DE, but he knew that he'd been to school with a lot of their children, and that there was a good chance he might be rewarded for reporting that a prophecy had been made.

Of course back then, I thought that Albus was rather less of a jerk than he turned out to be, and that having let the prophecy escape, he then turned around and tried to run damage control to lessen the iumpact on everyone else and ended up at cross-purposes with himself.

But in the end it's just another bit of evidence that Rowling didn't do all of her homework.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

My post HBP theory was that Albus deliberately let the prophecy escape, in order to goad Tom into taking unwise action and shooting himself in the foot.

Mmmm. I have problems with this theory, thought about it for a bit, and realised that ultimately it was because of my main gripe that the prophecy meant absolutely nothing, did nothing, was just fluff introduced by Rowling to prop up book #5 but then go away and just be vapid window dressing. So the idea that Dumbledore's 'letting it escape' - thus changing things by virtue of the existence of the prophecy - doesn't sway me. I mean, in HBP Harry's resolute in saying that he'd go after Riddle anyway, regardless of his knowing the prophecy, et cetera.

Of course the prophecy was the reason why Riddle picked on Harry, got zapped, and then kept trying to come back to kill him, but *Harry's knowing the prophecy* didn't change anything at all really. The prophecy was just what Rowling used to explain why Riddle went after the Potters 17 years ago, but it wasn't used for much after that.

Can't argue with this though:

why did he have Snape in his custody and then *let him go* without obliviating him?

That seems obvious to us now. Another one of those "don't think outside of where I want you to think" flaws of Rowling's? Where the characters just happen to do only what she wants for the convenience of moving the story to where she wants it to go?

We know that Albus will permit an Obliviate in an emergency.

Can you remind me of where he's done that in the canon?

But yes, given that Snape hadn't sworn his allegiance to Dumbledore back then, the headmaster's letting him get away with the knowledge of the prophecy was criminal.

Oh well. Add another one to the list ... :-(

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

The Obliviate was when Kingsley Obliviated Marietta Edgecombe in Albus's office right there in front of him. It would have been difficult to stop him, but Albus clearly seems to have had no problem with him doing it. There would have been far more reason to have Obliviated a few minutes from Snape when Aberforth caught him listening at the door.

Frankly, the prophecy (actually prophecy *record*) served the same purpose in OotP as the Philosopher's Stone served in PS/SS. It was the MacGuffin. In fact, OotP and PS/SS are practically the same story. OotP was a retread. I've got an essay over on Red Hen which lists plot points that the two share and the duplication is astounding.

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

Where the characters just happen to do only what she wants for the convenience of moving the story to where she wants it to go?

*** Yes.

.

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

I even mean it partly seriously. :-))

I do not know how to understand him now - especially post DH. Before, I was thinking he was a terrible Headmaster who did not look for his people at all, was able to sacrifice people without achieving so much, but I had a hope that he was at least doing this for some external purpose, for example taking Voldemort from the world. Now I read him as a coward who loves his fame, but is not willing to act in accordance with his position; a coward who would hide past all the people who trust him, making big speeches while saying nothing important or lies, but doing nothing, a coward who fears his own actions and who does not want to make his hands dirty. From this point I can understand his letting Voldemort to come to (predestined salvator) little Harry, because it is better to arrange things so that the villain will die and Dumbledore´s hands remain pure... his luring Voldemort to little Harry in PS and in GOF, with the terrible effect in the end of GOF; etc. etc. I see him as somebody who does not mind when people die on his orders - as far as he does not have to tell them that they have to die, and as far as he does not see them.

For me, he is now guilty of inactivity.

Yes, the Harrycrux did not need to finish all the others Horcruxes, did not need to be destroyed by Voldemort himself and did not need to be schooled in any way.

On the other hand, it is pretty difficult to tell to a child who trusts you and loves you: "Sorry, you are a container of a soul of the Dark Lord, I have to kill you." But, for me, it is very cowardly to let it just be, to pretend that he cares and/or has a plan, to order the child´s most unloved person to tell it to him instead, and not to try to find any way around it.

(And I am omitting the thing with not informing Severus about the blasted Wand - and thousands of minor things.)

I cannot understand, how people like Minerva could follow a leader like Albus Dumbledore... Maybe tons of charisma...?

I do not think he believed in the Prophecy. I think he saw it as a very good occasion to escape the necessity to act himself, to make another mistake such as with Ariana. And I think he was pretty happily doing his best to make that prophecy to be fulfilled - until he found out, in the end of GOF, the exact way of that fulfilling (Harrycrux).

(I hope I was at least partly coherent... I have not thought it through yet...)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Not only does he not come clean and tell Harry he just needs him killed, look at how he arranges his life knowing that. Dumbledore pretty much admits in OotP that he "loves Harry so much" that he loves giving him little gifties like the House Cup in PS/SS so that he can have a little happiness in his life. Meanwhile he arranges for him to live with the Dursleys.

WTF is up with that? He knows the kid's only use in life is that he'll eventually have to be killed due to the Horcrux if Voldemort comes back. He practically admits that this thought is in his mind when he's pulling strings to make grand gestures of his own caring of Harry. But he stops short at arranging for Harry to have a happy childhood since there's a good chance he won't live past it.

It still reads to me, as ever, that Albus wanted to make sure he was Harry's one and only, the guy he cared about more than anyone else. And given Dumbledore's personality I can easily believe it was just because Harry was the Chosen One and Albus wanted to make sure he was involved with him more than anyone else. Just as he thought he and Grindelwald were obviously soulmates because of their awesomeness, so were he and Harry.

[oryx_leucoryx]

But he stops short at arranging for Harry to have a happy childhood since there's a good chance he won't live past it.

Because it was useful to Albus to have Harry who identifies with the wizarding world as presented to him by Albus, on Albus' terms. Harry who has no bond with any adult but Albus, who trusts no adult but Albus, who sees Albus as his personal savior, and who will be willing to die on Albus' terms.

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

Exactly. "How to train a suicidal bomber" by Albus Dumbledore.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

I do not think he believed in the Prophecy. I think he saw it as a very good occasion to escape the necessity to act himself, to make another mistake such as with Ariana.

Do you mean he was trying avoiding making the same mistake? Or that he simply didn't care that he was making the same mistake?

Because isn't it weirdly similar? If he's responsible for Ariana's death, then it seems like it's through neglect... sort of? Putting his priorities in the wrong place. On ambition and power rather than taking care of a loved one.

But then he falls in love with Harry, and tries to make his happiness a priority, but still neglects him and fails. I mean, Harry's happy when he's at Hogwarts, but he spends two months of the year re-living Ariana's life as a hidden, shameful burden on a family.

And, if Dumbledore gave up power and ambition (as is claimed), it's hard to see how. He's got power over two generations of young wizards and witches. A quarter of those are fanatically devoted to him, a quarter are potentially fanatically opposed. And he's acknowledged as the most powerful wizard in the world for a decade, while the Minister of Magic is a figurehead and a joke (just as the future MoM will be under Voldemort's reign of terror).

And, just like when he was younger, he's still obsessed with the "other" most powerful wizard in the world, Voldemort. Even before Voldemort returns, Dumbledore's got a whole network of spies (that we never really delve into--whether is this huge network when Voldemort returns), keeping tabs on his spirit in Albania.

[oryx_leucoryx]

And when the Ministry doesn't do as he says he starts his own private army - twice.

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is very weird with him.

I think he was trying to avoid making the same mistakes (to neglect a minor in his care; to fall in love with a power/powerful wizard), but unsuccesfully.

I see people repeating the same mistakes again and again, with some variations, even if they know it is a mistake; probably they are doing it because they do not know how to act otherwise...? You know, such as if a girl falls in love with a drunk, and kicks him out, and then falls in love with another drunk etc.

I think Dumbledore saw with the incident with Ariana, that it is not so good to join a powerful wizard (Grindelwald), but nothing more. He, in my view, did not understand, *why* and *what exactly* was wrong with it. But he still, perhaps uncousciously, wished to be a great and powerful wizard himself, probably because he saw he had a potential. But then, to act as a powerful wizard is wrong, because it drives your little sisters dead... That is, why I think he avoided the battle with Grindelwald for so long. And that is why, as I think, he did not do anything with young Tom. And that could be, too, why he was (consciously) avoiding places of power (to be Minister of Magic), but unconsciously still tried to control and manage as much as he could.

The other thread: to neglect a minot in your care. I think he did not know how to treat a needful minor. He, himself, did not need any special care, when he was a child, or at least have not be given any. Aberforth... perhaps was not cared of so well (his problems with goats?), and Ariana certainly was not (to be locked away instead of healed... hmmm). So, I think, with young Tom, Albus did not know about any other care but to lock a minor away. For some reason, he did not do it. Its results were terrible.
So with Remus, he did it instead, he was locking him in the Shack when Remus was a monster, and the results were less terrible. (No dead Remus, no Dark Lord Remus. Yes, it was not the best possible care, but I think Dumbledore did not see it. As long as it results in no dead minor or no Dark Lord minor, it is well for him. Severus... survived, after all.) So he repeated it, whenever needed - with Sirius and Harry, whose he could thing of as "powerful, but in a need of cure, and capable of making a disaster (sorry, I cannot think of a proper word, hope this is understable)".
And, imo, with Harry he was trying to avoid his other mistake he had done with Tom: to neglect him. So he overdoed it and was partly spoiling him, when Harry was in the school, and partly locking away, when he was at the Dursleys, where Dumbledore had no power over him and cannot control him.
I think Dumbledore was heavily lying to himself. First, that he loved Harry. I do not believe he really felt anything near to love. I thing it was more a satisfaction that he solved the problem (with taking care of a minor), after all. In fact, he solved nothing, because his "care" was pretty terrible, but for him, it could be at least an improvement (in comparison with Ariana and Tom).

Second, that he gave up the lust for power. He did not, ever. But he could not let himself to be avare of it. (Because lusting for power gots your young sisters killed, you know.) From here I thing comes his bad leading - whenever he should act as a proper leader, he got cold feet (is it so?) and was just passively sitting on his bum, because being a leader gots your sisters killed...

I do not think he know how to love anybody. I think, with Harry, he was as near to love him as he could, but still, it was not Harry he loved, it was, at the best, an idea of Harry. (At the worst he loved not Harry, but just an idea of the best solution of a problem.) And I do not think he gave up the lust for the power. But he never could admit it to himself, because... etc. with the young sisters. :-))

With Voldemort in Albania and after, it could be still the same pattern: lock him away, just keep him (locked) away, and for all the goodness, do not do anything, because... etc.

(I hope I was coherent... it is difficult with Albus. :-)) )