Where we learn all about Tom Riddle!

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

Or do we?


– I understand that, in the year 2006, there are still people out there under the impression that the Harry Potter series are geared specifically for children. I invite these folks to read HPB – or, if they bought it and skimmed quickly to find out WHO KILLED DUMBLEDORE, to re-read it at a leisurely pace. Any whimsical notions of magical innocence will be chucked out the window once they've been introduced to the monster in Harry's trousers chest.


– Ah, the wee girl on the seventh floor, admiring a tapestry of trolls in tutus, who except for dropping a pair of scales neither moves nor speaks. (I suppose that tapestry is an "anvil-sized hint".) Under normal circumstances this might be seen as odd, and the Trio would be wise to question what the hell she's doing there, but...priorities! Ginny had a row with her man? Well, GOSH, that's important!


– Luna provides a refreshing break from the hormonal tedium – both for the reader and Ron, who is attempting to maneuver past the Scylla & Charybdis that are Hermione and Lavender. I found two things interesting about their interaction in this chapter: firstly, he compliments her on last chapter's Quidditch commentary (which I discussed here, if you scroll down a bit). If anyone knows how aggressive Ginny can be, it would be the brother closest in age to her; he seems genuinely impressed by how Luna managed to escape Zach Smith's fate!

Secondly, Ron willingly holds Luna's things while she delivers Dumbledore's message to Harry, and consequently accepts her gift of the Gurdyroot. All three items – the root, a toadstool (!!!) and cat litter (which is often made of clay) – are all things that come from the Earth. It's almost as if she's suggesting that Ron ground himself, not only because of his recent ordeal but also his current woman trouble. (I also like that she does this right in front of Hermione – roots have sexual connotations, both in their general shape and in the term "rooting about" as a euphemism for sex.) However, Hermione resumes doing the boys' schoolwork for them – and that's REALLY what matters to a man, ladies!


– Professor Trelawney is displeased at having to work with Firenze, and threatens to leave. But once you join La Cosa Nostra you cannot leave! the situation is hardly so simple; Dumbledore promised Firenze protection from the other Centaurs, and since Dumble's planned his entire game around Trelawney's prophecy he needs to keep her...close.


– Wow, what a passive-aggressive guilt trip Dumbles lays on Harry. I suppose it works to defuse Harry's aggressive tendencies – he'd have preferred if Dumbles had yelled at him (and frankly so would I – BRING IT, MICHAEL GAMBON!!!). ;)


– I quote this, because it's important. Please read and keep in mind (bold mine):
"Now you will remember, I hope, that I told you at the very outset of these meetings of ours that we would be entering the realms of guesswork and speculation?"

"Yes, sir."

"Thus far, as I hope you agree, I have shown you reasonably firm sources of fact for my deductions as to what Voldemort did until the age of 17?"

Harry nodded.

But now Harry," said Dumbledore, "now things become murkier and stranger..."

This means that despite the hype that HPB provides fresh information on Tom Riddle/Voldemort...it doesn't, really. Dumbledore tells Harry what he wants Harry to think; reasonably firm sources of fact are NOT the same as facts.


– Yet we still ascertain some things about Tom: he finished his schooling at Hogwarts with top grades, high honors and a special award. Several teachers – including Slughorn – suggested he join the Ministry but he chose not to, preferring to stay at Hogwarts and teach. He asked Dippet if there was a teaching position available. Under pressure from Dumbledore (Oh really? Fancy that!) Dippet refused, suggesting he come back when he's a bit older.


– Another quote from Dumbles: "I do think that he saw it as a useful recruiting ground, and a place where he might begin to build himself an army." NOT "I know", but "I do think". Perhaps Dumbledore is extrapolating from his own experience, since he certainly uses Hogwarts to indoctrinate young people to his way of thinking and...he's got an army, hasn't he? Not to mention an Order.

From an outside perspective, it looks like Dumbledore saw Tom as a younger, handsomer and somewhat emotionally unstable form of competition, and took measures to make things difficult for him. It's no surprise that Tom ended up at Borgin & Burkes – as an organization that doesn't discriminate between "Dark" & "Light" magic (much like Ollivander, perhaps? Where IS Burkes?) in the name of commerce, they were probably one of the few who didn't give a flying fuck what Dumbledore wanted. Tom was a handsome, charming fucker who knew how to get people to sell him their most valuable treasures – and this brought in business. Which brings us to Hepzibah Smith.


– Ah yes, Hepzibah! "...an immensely fat old lady wearing an elaborate ginger wig and a brilliant pink set of robes that flowed all around her, giving her the look of a melting iced cake." According to Harry, she looks "a long way from lovely", and she's in a room "so crammed with objects that it was difficult to see how anbody could navigate their way across it without knocking over at least a dozen things...In fact, the room looked like a cross between a magical antique shop and a conservatory." So not only is the lady FAT, but she HOARDS THINGS. Quite the positive, empowering statement, Rowling!


– Enter long-haired, gaunt-cheeked (couldn't resist, sorry!) Goth poster boy Tom Riddle, making Harry swoon just as hard as Hepzibah! The chest monster is silent here – as it was during Harry's obsession with Draco last chapter. Its responses seem to depend on Ginny's presence. While it's understandable that JKR may not care to promote The Homosexual Agenda – and I'm not suggesting she should! – it's surprising that a teenage fella full of hormones wouldn't have that monster busting out of his pants chest every time a girl walked past. Sorry – Ginny can't possibly be the only hottie at Hogwarts, JKR. I call Riddlemonster! ;)


– Tom was very businesslike, with a quiet voice and calm manner. Yet his "mechanical smile" is an interesting touch, coming after Hepzibah's concern that he's tired & overworked – NOT after her suggestion the he's "only here for my trinkets", which is where one might expect it.


– Hep (can I call her Hep?) was quite the geek; were she a Muggle she'd collect rare jazz on vinyl 78s, or archaeological bric-a-brac a la John Soane. (Considering how many people are avid collectors of Potter memorabilia, you'd think Rowling would be a bit kinder with Hep's characterization!) Collectors usually like to show off their stash, so it's not at all surprising that Hep wanted Tom to check out her cup and locket.

Tom might have been a bit of a geek himself – in order to be able to deal with B&B's clientele, he'd have to "speak their language" and understand the various types of value attached to the merchandise going in & out of the shop. Borgin & Burke's is no ordinary pawn shop – another reminder of how Hermone was so utterly out of her depth earlier when she walked in and tried to blag Borgin about the necklace.


– Again, Harry/the reader is blatantly told how to perceive Voldemort's reaction to the Smith & Gaunt Family Heirlooms. Harry thinks he sees "a red gleam in his dark eyes" when Tom holds the cup, and later definitely sees a "scarlet flash" when he hold the locket his mother sold so many years ago. But stepping away from yet another of Rowling's "anvil-sized hints", what's happening here? What did Hep actually say to Tom? I quote (bold mine):

"Burke bought it, apparently, from a ragged-looking woman who seemed to have stolen it, but had no idea of its true value..."

That's a pretty harsh thing to say about someone's dead mother. Granted, as far as we know Burke didn't make the connection between the desperate pregnant woman who sold him the locket and the brilliant employee who shows up for work twenty-odd years later. But if someone talked trash about MY mother – let alone accused her of being a thief! – my eyes would be flashing scarlet too! Why shouldn't Riddle be pissed off?

This doesn't excuse him for killing Hep, of course! (If indeed he did – we have no real proof either way.) We are aware after six books that Tom's not a stable person, and the fact that he quits B&B right after Hep's death doesn't look too good.


– Finally, Dumbledore shows Harry one of his own freshly concocted! memories, where Tom returns to Hogwarts to ask after the teaching position.

Now, this is where I step back and ask, WTF??? I'm supposed to believe this? Tom is trying to build himself up as LORD (Hush yo' mouth!) VOLDEMORT (And we can dig it!), he's already got Death Eaters buying him drinks, he's been all over the world studying various forms of DARK MAGIC. But I'm expected to fall for the idea that he's going to drop all his delusions of grandeur in order to...teach at Hogwarts?

Under Dumbledore?

RIGHT. I mean, check it:

"...nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore."

"Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places," suggested Dumbledore.

And who was supposed to teach Tom HOW and WHERE to search back when he was a student? Who was supposed to set a positive example? Dumbles set an example all right, what with the flaming wardrobe & all!


– This particular memory is really sneaky, because Dumbledore doesn't actually GET any information out of Tom. We do find out:

1) Tom already goes by the name of Voldemort.

2) Tom is starting to look pretty rough around the edges.

3) Tom has Death Eater friends waiting for him back at the bar.

4) Tom still wants to teach at Hogwarts.

Otherwise, nothing is given away: he comes in, asks for a teaching position, is refused, and leaves. Everything else is suggested by Dumbledore - even the idea that the DADA position is cursed!


– We know that every HP book gives us a new DADA teacher, but this memory doesn't tell us WHY. Tom doesn't specifically ask for that position (what if he really wanted Herbology? Oh, Neville!). But hey, let's go along with this. It's likely Tom DID hex the DADA position. Does that mean he really wanted that teaching gig? What if he was thinking more strategically? DADA is a crucial magical skill; if Hogwarts can't keep a DADA teacher, it can't keep up a consistent curriculum for the subject. This means the students don't learn the subject properly, and would be more vulnerable in later life to the effects of the Dark Arts.


To sum up, this chapter tells us very little about Tom Riddle's actual motivations – whether in acquiring the cup and locket, in desiring a teaching position, in working for Borgin & Burkes (and possibly killing one of their valuable clients), or in hexing the DADA postion. It's a fake-out – nothing is what it seems. I wonder if Dumbledore's insistence in assuming Tom works the same way he does contributed to his demise in HPB.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

But if someone talked trash about MY mother – let alone accused her of being a thief! – my eyes would be flashing scarlet too! Why shouldn't Riddle be pissed off?

Perhaps I'm wrong, but isn't Riddle ashamed of his mother? I mean, he thinks she's a muggle and to him, muggles are useless and weak.

It's likely Tom DID hex the DADA position. Does that mean he really wanted that teaching gig? What if he was thinking more strategically? DADA is a crucial magical skill; if Hogwarts can't keep a DADA teacher, it can't keep up a consistent curriculum for the subject. This means the students don't learn the subject properly, and would be more vulnerable in later life to the effects of the Dark Arts.

Wow. I have never thought of that before! You are definitely onto something. :)

-Wee Mouse

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

Awesome discussion. Thanks so much!

I really was disapointed with the portrayals of both Tom and Dumbledore in the most recent book, and you've really been pointing out the stuff that's bothered me.

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

isn't Riddle ashamed of his mother? I mean, he thinks she's a muggle and to him, muggles are useless and weak.

At this point he's already killed the Riddles, so he must know the magic is on his mother's side of the family. And if he knew about the locket, it's quite likely he was aware of the story behind it (ie that his mother sold it before she died).

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the feedback – it's really appreciated. :)

I really was disapointed with the portrayals of both Tom and Dumbledore in the most recent book

I felt the same way – Here I am looking forward to finding out what's up with Tom, and...I got more assumptions and double talk than anything else. :( So here I am, trying to pick through it all and find some information of value.

[dried-frog-pill.livejournal.com]

And who was supposed to teach Tom HOW and WHERE to search back when he was a student? Who was supposed to set a positive example? Dumbles set an example all right, what with the flaming wardrobe & all!

<3 I really felt that HBP just...flattened Voldemort into this stereotypical 2-D villain, and really made Dumbledore look even more hypocritical than ever before.

[jollityfarm.livejournal.com]

(oh hells, I'll have my chapter up soon, honest guv)

Under normal circumstances this might be seen as odd, and the Trio would be wise to question what the hell she's doing there, but...priorities! Ginny had a row with her man? Well, GOSH, that's important!

Harry has a one track mind, as is the stereotype of teenage boys the whole world over. Perhaps Rowling is trying to suggest that that tapestry is very interesting (although not, to Harry, more interesting than the though of getting his tops and fingers a date with the lovely Ginny Weasley). I, too, am suspicious :O

Luna provides a refreshing break from the hormonal tedium

I'm not sure I agree with you about her Quidditch commentary (it just sounded like she was sucking up to Ginny to me - sorry), at least she isn't part of some tedious game of trying to get the person she likes to notice her by acting like a beast posessed. I have hopes for her as one of Hogwarts' low-sex-drive community :) Hey, the terminally uninterested need representation too!

Dumbledore promised Firenze protection from the other Centaurs

Spoiler for now (although who here is reading this book for the first time anyway? Show of hands?) but don't all the centaurs come out of the forest at the end to give Dumbledore a one-hundred-and-one longbow salute? Not to mention all the mer-folk etc etc. But anyway, do the centaurs hate us two-legs or not?

So not only is the lady FAT, but she HOARDS THINGS. Quite the positive, empowering statement, Rowling!

At least she didn't have a room full of old food and owl poo (says the lass who really needs to vaccuum). Clutter like that must be a bugger to dust (I know clutter, and the dust that gives it many huggles) but at least it doesn't stink. Well, not usually.

The chest monster is silent here – as it was during Harry's obsession with Draco last chapter. Its responses seem to depend on Ginny's presence.

Harry didn't even get said monster for the comely Cho. Obviously, Ginny is unique, special and too talented with love potions and charms glorious for words. Curiously, Harry's many teenage hormonal outbursts (as referenced by the many people who make excuses for his behaviour - "weren't you ever young?")are perfectly normal when they have him screaming abuse at people for not kissing his peachy bumcakes, but when it comes to affairs of the heart, those oh-so-convenient hormones are nowhere to be seen.

[courtaud.livejournal.com]

– I quote this, because it's important. Please read and keep in mind (bold mine):
"Now you will remember, I hope, that I told you at the very outset of these meetings of ours that we would be entering the realms of guesswork and speculation?"
Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying out loud that what we 'know' about Riddle's past is actually almost nothing, all we have are Dumbledore's manipulative considerations.
He has clearly stated - in the first book - that he will not lie, but of course he is free to add his comments, is he not?
Ant this is the man whose biggest weakness is to believe too easily in the goodness of people! Just think what he could have said if he was a manipulative, deceiving old codger coaching Harry to murder.

[(Anonymous)]

But I'm expected to fall for the idea that he's going to drop all his delusions of grandeur in order to...teach at Hogwarts?

ENTER: a man with blood-red eyes and vampiric pallor, wearing a long black cloak.

"Good morning, children. I am Lord Voldemort and I'll be your new Dark Arts teach- I mean Defense against the Dark Aurors – oh, screw it. Who wants to join a really cool study group? You get a tattoo."

Iow, testify.

Who was supposed to set a positive example? Dumbles set an example all right, what with the flaming wardrobe & all!

Dude, and he STILL doesn't get it. He's all, "If only you were still young and impressionable so I could scare you shitless all over again", not realizing that treating a kid like that will cost you any chance of influencing them in the long run. Tom being a sociopath was probably beyond help, but DD couldn't have known that at the time.

It disturbs me that meeting an obviously deeply troubled boy, DD defaults to proving that he's the No. 1 scary badass mofo in the room. He never considers any other way of showing Tom who's boss and what's unacceptable behavior, it's "Bow to my wrath, evil kid!" What price the power of love, huh?

Everything else is suggested by Dumbledore - even the idea that the DADA position is cursed!

And Harry just sits there going, Yes, Master, anything you say. Which is why Dumbledore values his opinion so much.

I love the idea that Voldemort cursed the DADA position to ensure that Hogwarts would always have subpar instruction in the subject. He'd still get decent recruits from among the students who are homeschooled in the Dark Arts or motivated enough to study them in their spare time.

Best not ask why, since DD has tumbled to the curse, he's happy to let a new unsuspecting teacher go to their doom every year. The concept of criminal negligence doesn't exist in the WW, so why should he beat himself up over it? Besides, we see from this chapter that two teachers sharing a subject, which might be a way to get around the terms of the curse, is too much for him to handle.

-L

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

I really felt that HBP just...flattened Voldemort into this stereotypical 2-D villain

Yeah. And the penultimate book is a really unfortunate place for that to happen; there's supposed to be a buildup of power and tension between two opposing forces ("Dark" and "Light", if you like), and instead we've got two pathetic characters molded and manipulated by the same man, who is now conveniently DEAD and unable to take any real responsibility for the damage he's done the both of them.

HPB left me doubting whether Harry has what it takes to move from pawn to bishop (although he has to in Book 7) and not satisfied that Voldemort is the problem JKR seems to want us to think he is.

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

It disturbs me that meeting an obviously deeply troubled boy, DD defaults to proving that he's the No. 1 scary badass mofo in the room.

Dumbles took a very different tack with Harry, playing the more passive-aggressive "kindly old POWERFUL man" trip. So in a sense he must know he fucked up with Tom, and it sucks that he wasn't man enough to fully admit his part to play in creating Lord Voldemort.

Unfortunately, Harry is so unthinking and unquestioning that it's hard to believe he's capable of functioning without Dumbledore around to tell him what to do. It's like Dumbledore decided to veer so far in the opposite direction in dealing with Harry that he's fucked him up as well. Hmm...we'll find out in Book 7 how this all plays out, I suppose.

I love the idea that Voldemort cursed the DADA position to ensure that Hogwarts would always have subpar instruction in the subject. He'd still get decent recruits from among the students who are homeschooled in the Dark Arts or motivated enough to study them in their spare time.

Which is now making me wonder about Snape's schoolbook, and Harry's obsession with it...I don't think it's a horcrux or anything like that, but it's definitely got some mojo of its own. Why didn't Severus hold on to it, since it clearly had a lot of his research in it? Did Voldemort take it from him at some point? How did Slughorn end up with it? And is its purpose to hone in on such students as would show an aptitude for the Dark Arts, or is it meant specifically to bring Harry's inner darkness to the fore? Questions, questions...

Besides, we see from this chapter that two teachers sharing a subject, which might be a way to get around the terms of the curse, is too much for him to handle.

Wow...yeah, that could have worked with regards to the DADA position. Great thinking, Anonymous L! :)

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

this is the man whose biggest weakness is to believe too easily in the goodness of people!

And yet at this point it seems he meant that the biggest weakness one can fall prey to in the Wizarding World is to trust overmuch in the goodness of others. Which is...well, that's rough, isn't it? A rather harsh yet true statement about the world Harry has found himself in.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Why, what do you mean we learn nothing of Voldemort? We learn that he is EVIL! And then we learn he is EVIL AGAIN! Age 1? Evil. Age 3? Still evil.

And we also see that pretty much of his victims deserved it. Good think Slughorn didn't see this--that Hepzibah woman is another fat old lady with a house full of knicknacks. See, people who have messy rooms full of garbage are healthy and heroic. If you're magpie-like, well, you know how that is! A good person wants no more than a canteen of water and a sword!

I love that Dumbledore could have easily told Dumbledore's whole story at one sitting but instead he spends the whole year dragging it out. You can see why he and Voldemort exist in the same universe. The same mind who puts the Tri-Wizard tournament between Harry and a Portkey would definitely put a thousand Pensieve trips and Horace Slughorn between Harry and the small bit of information he really really needs to know about Voldemort. But Dumbledore twinkling and saying, "Patience!" is I assume supposed to just make us think there's some reason we have to do it this way.

if Hogwarts can't keep a DADA teacher, it can't keep up a consistent curriculum for the subject. This means the students don't learn the subject properly, and would be more vulnerable in later life to the effects of the Dark Arts.

It certainly makes more sense than Voldemort just dying to be a teacher, which these books alone prove is an incredibly thankless job. And props to Dumbledore for maybe never telling anybody what they're getting into. I don't know if it's worse to imagine Lupin being tricked into thinking he might finally get a job, or Dumbledore dashing his hopes right away by saying he needs him for this year but it's going to end in tragedy for him due to this curse. No, sorry, Remus. I know no one else in the world will hire you but I can't give you Care of Magical Creatures or something that isn't cursed and also could use a competent teacher. But don't worry, everyone will blame Snape for it, not me.

2) Tom is starting to look pretty rough around the edges.

Not that this in any way indicates a moral element to good looks!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I love that Dumbledore could have easily told Dumbledore's whole story

That's Voldemort's whole story. I always mix those two up.

[trobadora]

Tom being a sociopath was probably beyond help, but DD couldn't have known that at the time.

Yes - Tom may well have been beyond help, but that doesn't absolve Dumbledore from not even trying. The sheer hypocrisy is mind-boggling, and the treatment Tom receives from him is absolutely appalling. Is he actively trying to push Tom to the dark side? He certainly couldn't have chosen a more effective method.

[trobadora]

Age 1? Evil. Age 3? Still evil.

True - what we mostly learn is that yes, in this universe it's perfectly possible to be "born evil". The whole Tom backstory gives me the creeps. Does JKR not realise that this completely undermines her good guys? If you want to seriously make an argument that someone is beyond help, show someone trying - and failing. If no one ever tries, what the hell does that prove?!

I love that Dumbledore could have easily told Dumbledore's whole story at one sitting but instead he spends the whole year dragging it out. You can see why he and Voldemort exist in the same universe.

LOL! Is it really that hard to come up with a plot that actually spans the year without this artificial stretching?!

deleted and reposted, sorry for the mess-up!

Ooooooh, Melchett!

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

Harry has a one track mind, as is the stereotype of teenage boys the whole world over.

Well, one would THINK that were the case. Yet if it were (recalling teenage boys as I do, and coming across them ever so often at gigs and the like!), that monster of his would be busting a move every time some fine chick walked past! Hogwarts is a co-ed school – there are girls everywhere. Why only Ginny?

(We know that %it's only Ginny because JKR says so in her interviews%; but if she has to insist upon the idea outside the text, she clearly didn't do a good job of convincing her readers within the text.)

What makes Harry's penis chest monster even more laughable is that JKR has difficulties separating her sexual preferences from Harry's POV; hence the swooning over Tom, the obsession with Draco, etc. She fancies blokes, so the blokes are fanciable; Harry is supposed to fancy girls, but JKR seems to be unable to put herself in the mindset of a horny 16-year-old boy. So the monster seems less a symbolic expression of desire and more something not quite right in a book where nothing is really as it seems.

I'm not sure I agree with you about her Quidditch commentary

It's all good, jollityfarm – since when do we all have to agree on anything? :D

I'm aware that my take on Luna in HPB is atypical; I'm more interested in putting my ideas out there to get people thinking, rather than because DAMMIT, I MUST BE RIGHT.

...don't all the centaurs come out of the forest at the end to give Dumbledore a one-hundred-and-one longbow salute?

I did a rush-read of that chapter before leaving for work this morning – it seems they don't actually come out of the forest, preferring to stay in the shadows. But they DO shoot arrows in honor of Dumbles' death. It may be that the centaurs respect Dumbledore in the way that one respects someone very powerful – which has nothing to do with liking him, or liking wizards for that matter. (Firenze needs protection because he's a bloody Uncle Tom!)

Ginny is unique, special and too talented with love potions and charms glorious for words.

I can completely dig the idea that Ginny was dosing Harry throughout the year. But that monster smacks of Riddle to me more than anything else – Voldemort isn't inside Harry's head*, he's in Harry's CHEST. Keeping it clean for a moment(!), having Voldemort in the proximity of Harry's heart would be really interesting, considering the associations of love with the human heart (and love is what Harry needs to kill Voldemort, as we all know). Yet it also sounds totally fucking dangerous for Harry to have his enemy so close to the organ that keeps him alive.


*It could also be said that Voldemort's inside the other head! You know, the one that usually wins out in male adolescent decision-making! ;)

[courtaud.livejournal.com]

And yet at this point it seems he meant that the biggest weakness one can fall prey to in the Wizarding World is to trust overmuch in the goodness of others. Which is...well, that's rough, isn't it? A rather harsh yet true statement about the world Harry has found himself in.
Snape told clearly to poor Bella that (Dumbledore) has to believe the best of people. I think that it's one of the many lies he told at Spinner's End.
Now, put this way "always think the best of people" it's a big weakness and a quite stupid one, mainly in someone who is trying to win a civil war. Trust overmuch is a defect of intelligence and will, not a good quality of the heart.
Being deceived by people we came to trust is a sad occurrence who happens in the Wizarding World (Pettigrew and Lupin can be nice proof of this), but blind faith in goodness does not come out from what we see of Dumbledore.
I cannot see how he believed the best of Merope or of Slughorn, for exemple. Nor of Sirius, whom he left in Azkaban for years without even try to understand what happened.
The Wizarding World is a ugly place, but Dumbledore is not a shining light above its darkness.

[courtaud.livejournal.com]

And we also see that pretty much of his victims deserved it. Good think Slughorn didn't see this--that Hepzibah woman is another fat old lady with a house full of knicknacks.
Not only that. She fancies herself attractive. She dyes her hair. She dresses in pink. Maybe she ever has sexual desires when she is no longer fertile.

It certainly makes more sense than Voldemort just dying to be a teacher, which these books alone prove is an incredibly thankless job. And props to Dumbledore for maybe never telling anybody what they're getting into.
That's because they deserved it, no doubt. At the end of CoS, we find that Dumbledore knew of Lockhart's way to obliviate Wizards to steal their achievements, and that he finds funny that now he is the one with a permanent brain damage. “Dear me,” said Dumbledore, shaking his head, his long silver moustache quivering. “Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!”. He could be almost in tears, mind you.

2) Tom is starting to look pretty rough around the edges.
Not that this in any way indicates a moral element to good looks!
Of course not. He was a bad one even when he was pretty! One must wait and see if the good looks waste away.

[courtaud.livejournal.com]

Tom may well have been beyond help, but that doesn't absolve Dumbledore from not even trying.
I'm afraid that the scene at the orphanage was Rowling's idea of trying.
If one think that Tom was segregated in a room and persuaded that he was to be packed off to an asylum...

[trobadora]

Rowling has weird ideas about this kind of thing at times. For example, I still don't understand how taking the House Cup from Slytherin at the end of PS can be read as anything other than a deliberate alienation of Slytherin House, considering how it's written. It makes absolutely no sense to me, and Dumbledore's treatment of Tom is consistent with this and just as mind-boggling to me.

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

Maybe she even has sexual desires when she is no longer fertile.

Gotta love the direct comparison between her looking 'greedily' (tramp!) at Tom, while he looks greedily at the treasures (because it's just as bad to be a lustful woman as it is to kill an elderly person for personal gain, yo.)

At the end of CoS, we find that Dumbledore knew of Lockhart's way to obliviate Wizards to steal their achievements, and that he finds funny that now he is the one with a permanent brain damage.

Shame we never saw his reaction to Montague. 'Ah, dear boy, the hollow pursuit of ambitions didn't serve you well, now, did it?' (Of course, he's suitably upset over the Longbottoms, who were Our Kind of People.)

[courtaud.livejournal.com]

Since she stated that Slytherin House stands for the negative part of ourselves that we cannot denie (the question was as usual 'why Slytherin House cannot be disbanded?), mistreating them must be good for our collective soul. Or something.

Or maybe Dumbledore likes his Wizarding World in perpetual civil war.

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

Is he actively trying to push Tom to the dark side?

It seems like Dumbledore knew that Tom was capable of supplanting him, so he tried to thwart Tom at an early age. But he only succeeded in exacerbating Tom's mental instability, while giving him something to focus his rage upon and rail against. Unfortunately for Dumbles, Tom just wouldn't give up or go away.

Had Dumbledore faced up to what he did – how he failed Tom and helped create Voldemort – he'd not only be a far more sympathetic character, but an opportunity for healing might have arisen for both Tom and himself, and by extension the Wizarding World as a whole. Instead, he kept covering up his mistake and obfuscating the issue. He involved Harry as a third party and shifted the responsibilty for "destroying" Voldemort onto a clueless teenage boy.

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

If you're magpie-like, well, you know how that is!

We corvids are doomed, aren't we? DOOMED. we are BAD PEOPLE. :o

The same mind who puts the Tri-Wizard tournament between Harry and a Portkey would definitely put a thousand Pensieve trips and Horace Slughorn between Harry and the small bit of information he really really needs to know about Voldemort.

Yet I suspect it's Dumbledore's inability to accept that Tom may possibly think differently that leads him to fuck up so badly. He expects Voldemort to do what he would do, and up to a point Voldemort does, because WHO taught Tom by example how to wield power? Dumbledore!

But after that point...The goals are similar, but the ways and means don't have to be.

Not that this in any way indicates a moral element to good looks!

Yet again, Tom can't win. He's EEEEEEEEEEEVIL when he's young, Gothic and handsome, he's EEEEEEEEEEEVIL when he's old, haggard and snakelike...he's even EEEEEEEEEEEVIL when he lives a vaporized existence throughout the 1980's!

[trobadora]

It's much easier to manipulate people into seeing you as the Good Guy if you have someone else to demonise!

[trobadora]

I couldn't agree more. No one in this series ever seems to own up to their mistakes.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks! :)

It's just, if the curse has a time fuse of nearly a year, you'd think something could be worked out to thwart it. But again, why should Dumbledore care? The victims we've met have been more or less evil except Lupin, and DD hit the jackpot that year. Pettigrew owes Harry a life debt; that dangerous loose cannon Sirius didn't get to prove his innocence; Lupin himself was outed and by now is desperate enough to spy on the other werewolves for DD. It couldn't have turned out better if he and Voldemort had planned it between them.

Great points about the Potions book. If the book has enough of a mind of its own to choose its next owner, that makes much more sense than that Snape would just leave it lying around. It'd probably be intended for people with a dark arts bent in general, since Harry is less of a potential recruit than a potential rival to Voldemort, but that's just a guess.

-L

[(Anonymous)]

OT, but there's something incongruous about how Lockhart is presented. In CoS he acts like an amnesiac. His celebrity persona has been stripped away, but he seems functional, with an appealing moment of self-insight (Me, a teacher? I must've sucked). In OotP he's quite clearly brain-damaged, and his fate serves as the amusing backdrop to the tragic Longbottoms. So yeah, brain damage is funny except when it's Neville's parents. If Draco had explained to Neville that time that he wasn't mocking his parents specifically, it would have been okay.

-L

[meganinhiding.livejournal.com]

he kept covering up his mistakes

This is something Dumbledore has in common with Slughorn who couldn't bear to part with the memory of telling Tom about horcruxes. Its been mentioned that the favoritism Harry received may have been a tacit admission from Dumbledore that he didn't do enough for Tom though I think its really because he sees Harry as a future weapon; Dumbledore seems to have repeated those mistakes with Snape who wasn't popular and socially like Tom.

[melky.livejournal.com]

I love that Dumbledore could have easily told Dumbledore's whole story at one sitting but instead he spends the whole year dragging it out. You can see why he and Voldemort exist in the same universe. The same mind who puts the Tri-Wizard tournament between Harry and a Portkey would definitely put a thousand Pensieve trips and Horace Slughorn between Harry and the small bit of information he really really needs to know about Voldemort. But Dumbledore twinkling and saying, "Patience!" is I assume supposed to just make us think there's some reason we have to do it this way.

Dumbledore can't just tell Harry all in one go. That would give him too much time to consider the whole matter rationally and form his own opinions.

[bramble-bea.livejournal.com]

Except apparently (Ever So Good) Snape and Draco Malfoy of all people (and it's Dumbledore who seems to dismiss the fact that Draco almost got two students killed).

[bramble-bea.livejournal.com]

Dumbledore should have known by now that the chances of Harry having his own opinions about anything are slimmer than a very slim thing.

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

Paradoxically I think this makes for a lot of the appeal the books hold: it's pretty nice to identify with a character guaranteed to be have the moral high-ground no matter what, inherently above the people they dislike, with no need or desire to know them or their motivations because they are also guaranteed to be bad therefore ignorable -- and deniable.

I agree. The series is popular because it appeals to the public's moral comfort zones. In a sense we aren't meant to pick it apart and critique it, only sit back and accept it for what it is ("C'mon! It's only a kids' book!!!"). But we do critique it, and pore over it and pick it apart, and we find not only the author's unconscious promptings and motivations, but that perhaps of the target audience.

Without wandering overmuch into "What About The Kids?" territory, it IS interesting that so much money and hype is poured into promoting the HP series as children's books; that kids are encouraged to read a story where no-one really questions why things are the way they are, no-one wonders if so-and-so is really what they appear to be, and it doesn't matter how one behaves or what one does as long as one is on the "correct" side.

[trobadora]

If you try and fail, it's more likely to be a sign you weren't destined to it. Bravery is all about doing the things we were born with the right equipment to accomplish.

Yes, that's exactly it. Which is why Dumbledore's "what is right vs. what is easy" reads so incredibly false!

Paradoxically I think this makes for a lot of the appeal the books hold: it's pretty nice to identify with a character guaranteed to be have the moral high-ground no matter what

I guess so; since I've never identified with the main characters it's all very strange to me. There are many things I love about these books; its main characters and its morals are not among them.

[trobadora]

True - and it's very hard not to believe that they're being penalised for this, or rather for not complying with the born-to-this-means-always-this view.

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

I was glad about this, personally, since I think it would be bitter hypocrisy if Dumbledore, who never made an effort towards any of the current Slytherins we've seen - actively spiting them, in fact - never mind Snape's generation, Tom's generation... (maybe that explains why the British WW is so fucked up? They've all been taught at Hogwarts! ;); did the sad bit about Draco being doomed for his mistakes.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

"I love that Dumbledore could have easily told Dumbledore's (Voldemort's?) whole story at one sitting but instead he spends the whole year dragging it out."

I just saw the movie and it handles the issue very well; it only ever shows some of the most important memories, and after that Dumbledore just tells Harry immediately what to do.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It is amazing how often I mix up Dumbledore and Voldemort's names. All the damn time! I'm not surprised the movie condenses it and keeps things moving.