The preferences and selfishness of the highest commander
ââAn analysis of ADHP relationship based on original novel only.
It is well known that Albus Dumbledore is the highest commander of the white side of the war campaign against Voldemort. Everyone on the white side took Dumbledore's orders as top priority and right answers, because Dumbledore's instructions "Always turns out to be right" Dumbledore is such a God-like existence in Harry Potter novels: he knows things like god, knows people like god and his magical skills are indisputably the most powerful in the whole series. At various scenes in the book, Harry thought he was in the stratosphere, only to discover he's actually in outer space in the end. Dumbledore's personal abilities are extraordinary, but I believe that while his abilities as a commander were excellent and outstanding, there were some serious and even fatal omissions. Much can be found in a speech he gives in chapter 37 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Lost Prophecy.
The following is an excerpt from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter 37, The Lost Prophecy, in which Harry talked to Dumbledore after Sirius's death when he returned to Hogwarts.
"It is my fault that Sirius died,â said Dumbledore clearly. âOr should I say, almost entirely my fault ââI will not be so arrogant as to claim responsibility for the whole. Sirius was a brave, clever and energetic man, and such men are not usually content to sit at home in hiding while they believe others to be in danger. Nevertheless, you should never have believed for an instant that there was any necessity for you to go to the Department of Mysteries tonight. If I had been open with you, Harry, as I should have been, you would have known a long time ago that Voldemort might try and lure you to the Department of Mysteries, and you would never have been tricked into going there tonight. And Sirius would not have had to come after you. That blame lies with me, and with me alone.â"
Letâs translate what Dumbledore said: It was not Sirius's fault that he disobeyed my orders and went to the Ministry of Magic himself, for he was by nature an energetic man who could not hide at home when believing others were in danger. Nor was it Harry's fault that he had taken it upon himself to run off to the Ministry of Magic, regardless of the consequences, because he was also a man who goes to save people when believing they were in danger. It was my failure to tell Harry that Voldemort might use the link between Voldemort and Harry, and why he was learning Occlumency, that led to this tragedy. Because I am so capable, I should be able to see all the minds of our soldiers, anticipate all your actions, and count in all your recklessness. And I was wrong, which led to Siriusâs dead. This is all my fault.
What a harsh self-requirement.
Later in the chapter, Dumbledore told Harry about the contents of the prophecy: Neither can survive while the other is alive. Most readers have been caught up in the prophecy the first few times they read this chapter, and have missed the rest of Dumbledore's message. But as I listened to the audiobook for the third time in a row, word for word, I noticed how informative Dumbledore's words had been:
âI cared about you too much,â said Dumbledore simply. âI cared more for your happiness than your knowing the truth, more for your peace of mind than my plan, more for your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed. In other words, I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love to act.
âIs there a defence? I defy anyone who has watched you as I have â and I have watched you more closely than you can have imagined â not to want to save you more pain than you had already suffered. What did I care if numbers of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in the vague future, if in the here and now you were alive, and well, and happy? I never dreamed that I would have such a person on my hands.
It can be known from the passage above that Dumbledore cared for Harry far more than he cared for the other White warriors, or the other Hogwarts students. His caring about Harry had blinded him to the interests of the other " nameless and faceless people and creatures ". In fact, in the original books, Dumbledore also came up with many dangerous plans for other soldiers in order to protect Harry. For example, Moody's death and George's loss of an ear were the direct result of the seven Harry's air battle plan, not to mention the fact that Snape was doing dangerous wirewalking every day because of the tasks he was sending him on. Dumbledore cared for Harry as much as a parent would care for his own child, who was more important than anyone else. And this is very unfair to the other white soldiers. Other righteous characters, like Hermione, the Weasleys, Moody, Lupin, Tonks, Sirius, etc., all have sense of justice and virtue no less than Harry's, but Dumbledore, as he himself admits, has favoured Harry over many others. And these omissions, which he himself was aware of, were caused by his caring and loving for Harry, being a "fool who love". If Dumbledore were regarded as a god with flesh, such selfishness and favouritism would not be proper. But in the end, he is still a human being, and a very good and great one.
