Folly, Part NIne

[terri_testing]

Snape’s life has been a series of spectacular errors of judgment, to put it kindly.

This has to have been his worst.

Chapter Summary:  The headmaster can be very persuasive.

“He certainly knew what was right, nor could she fix on any one article of moral duty evidently transgressed, but yet she would have been afraid to answer for his conduct

Comments

[lynn_waterfall]

I'm really enjoying this story. I love how subtle Dumbledore's flaws are presented: they're certainly all there, but they don't hit you over the head. (Despite all of the time we've spent enumerating them in our discussions.)

Dumbledore's flaws

[terri_testing]

Oh, GOOD.

(Sags in relief.)

I'd been wondering if I needed to rewrite this chapter to make Dumbledore more subtle. Because his flaws are obvious to me (and to anyone who's spent too long on DTCL or, er, on my lj), but he himself thinks of himself as a hero. A genius reluctantly putting into effect the less-palatable requirements that his brilliance shows to be requisite to attain the sacrosant-above-all goal.

The biggest difference between Tom and Al, it seems to me, is that Tom thought of himself as an unregenerate villain. Albus managed to view himself as fighting a rearguard action, perhaps somewhat compromised, for absolute Good.

And it's not HIS fault that most people reading in the twenty-first century would accept that someone siring an illegitimate child should, if honorable, strive to be a "good father" and be an intimate part of the child's life, whereas in pre-Victorian times, an honorable man would have hushed up the scandal but seen to the child's maintenance....

Re: Dumbledore's flaws

[sunnyskywalker]

Very old characters really ought to default to opinions from their youth more often, really, so this fits very well. Sure, people can adapt... but raising one's bastard child oneself didn't become not only acceptable but practically expected until how many decades into the 20th century? I mean kids born to unwed mothers kept getting sent off to orphanages or new families whether the mothers liked it or not well past the half-century mark, never mind the fathers. The WW doesn't incorporate Muggle-world social changes very quickly either. So if leaving one's illegitimate offspring with their Muggle parents if non-magical and sending them to be fostered somewhere respectable if magical has been standard until, say, 1975 or so, someone Dumbledore's age would still be defaulting to the old mindset. Just like most wizards of any generation before Severus

Re: Dumbledore's flaws

[jana_ch]

Even when I was growing up, it was expected that an unmarried mother would give her child up for adoption, as an expression of unselfish love for the child. In the early Seventies I watched a soap opera that was known for its modern and controversial topics, and it had one radical storyline in which an unwed mother not only refused to go into hiding when she was pregnant, but kept the child and raised it herself. That's barely more than a decade after this story is taking place.

Dumbledore is not being cruel; he's being old-fashioned, and not very old-fashioned at that. Keeping a child to be raised in poverty is not necessarily a kindness, and giving it up to be raised by a secure, intact family is not necessarily a cruelty. But perhaps I'm just showing my age.

If course, Neville will not be raised in poverty by an addict because he is in Severus's custody, but a single father raising his child is fairly radical even now. (My brother would have been such a better parent for my nephew than his crazy mother, but nooooo...)

[sunnyskywalker]

Yay, more story!

Oh, Albus. Just reasonable enough to be all the more chilling. "Keep your kid safer in hiding" but no "so sorry, I know it's hard to meet him only to give him up to strangers." Entirely a practical puzzle to him. No human feeling at all for the poor kid.

And oh yes, the disorienting realization that for all Albus says Muggles shouldn't be abused for sport, he doesn't actually, you know, chat them up or hang out with them like they're regular people. The idea that Albus isn't the opposite of Voldemort at all, only a relatively "nicer" authority figure with a place in the legitimate power structure, has to be world-shattering. A point along a spectrum of opinion on just how inferior Muggles are and what should be done about them, and a more delicate manner of handling subordinates. (Actually the realization that DE attitudes are just a hop-skip-and-a-jump down the path from mainstream wizarding opinion can't be far behind, once you get to that point. Which is also pretty horrifying. Raise kids to be primed to fall for

[oryx_leucoryx]

Interesting points about Harry. It is also before he started attending school, so before many of the worst magical outbreaks, and the over-the-top response to them. Did Dudley already know his hangers-on?

[sunnyskywalker]

Good point about school. If Dudley goes to playdates, Harry probably isn't invited along (since some of his tantrums probably were magical, and the Dursleys wouldn't want to risk it). Dudley and his friends wouldn't be old enough to roam the neighborhood on their own yet, anyway.

But maybe they're trying to bribe Harry into good behavior at this point? Pocket money every week he doesn't do anything "funny" and finishes a few chores. Getting to watch cartoons so long as they watch the ones Dudley prefers. Maybe he is allowed to play with any kids who come over to the Dursleys' (where Petunia can supervise). Dudley and his friends start shoving Harry around, and BAM! No more playdates. Too risky. A few more "funny" incidents once he starts school the next year, and no more pocket money either.

Funny stuff

[terri_testing]

Good catch on the pocket money, y'all

future?

[my_faded_smile]

I am captivated by this story and sincerely hope it gets an ending.

[sunnyskywalker]

I was re-reading a few chapters of this recently. Still so much fun :-)

I am also struck anew by what a very deep hole Severus has dug himself into. All he meant to do was pull one little boy out of the ocean, and now somehow, one step at a time, he's here. Very, very stuck. How can he keep Neville around without Dumbledore noticing, or persuade Dumbledore to let him continue actively parenting without raising suspicion? What on earth is he going to do about Harry

[ext_3359375]

There is a third possibility, which is that Dumbledore thinks Severus is adequate when caring for adolescents, but not for small children who are more squeaky and irritating.

There's a short fanfic by unlikely2 in which Harry discovers that his Animagus form is a badger, so he turns Voldie into a toad and then eats him.

"Quite the ideal person" is an Americanism and as such unlikely in someone of Albus's age. We generally use "quite" as a modifier which tones down the word it's modifying, so "quite hot" means hot, but not *very* hot.