>>from the perspective of someone who knows little or nothing about child abuse and its impact on human development.<<
Yeah, exactly. That's part of the problem with Dumbledore. He's fricken a hundred plus years old (exactly how far over, is somewhat debated). Back then, *whipping* kids was pretty much normal.
It doesn't excuse Dumbledore at all, because if he was going to run a fricking school, he needed to be aware of how things had changed since he was a kid.
>>He rather quickly discovered that the wizards were just as intent on fucking him over as the Dursleys, just in different ways.<<
This is why I wanted to KILL Rowling when she killed Sirius off. Because while Sirius fucked up back in '81, I tend to forgive him, because damn near anyone would go off the rails when their best friends end up getting killed 'because of them' (granted, it wasn't Sirius that killed them, but he was the one that talked James and Lily into using Peter, so he'd be feeling like he HAD).
But he *broke out of jail* when he found out Pettigrew was in Hogwarts. With Harry. He more or less instantly offered to let Harry live with him, once he'd managed to reassure Harry he wasn't an insane, traitorous, murderous bastard of the first order. And he dropped fricking *everything* to be near Harry and help Harry again and again. He was, in short, the only adult in the series that gave a damn about Harry as Harry, rather than 'The Boy Who Lived'.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_serpent
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2013-05-23 11:12 pm (UTC)Yeah, exactly. That's part of the problem with Dumbledore. He's fricken a hundred plus years old (exactly how far over, is somewhat debated). Back then, *whipping* kids was pretty much normal.
It doesn't excuse Dumbledore at all, because if he was going to run a fricking school, he needed to be aware of how things had changed since he was a kid.
>>He rather quickly discovered that the wizards were just as intent on fucking him over as the Dursleys, just in different ways.<<
This is why I wanted to KILL Rowling when she killed Sirius off. Because while Sirius fucked up back in '81, I tend to forgive him, because damn near anyone would go off the rails when their best friends end up getting killed 'because of them' (granted, it wasn't Sirius that killed them, but he was the one that talked James and Lily into using Peter, so he'd be feeling like he HAD).
But he *broke out of jail* when he found out Pettigrew was in Hogwarts. With Harry. He more or less instantly offered to let Harry live with him, once he'd managed to reassure Harry he wasn't an insane, traitorous, murderous bastard of the first order. And he dropped fricking *everything* to be near Harry and help Harry again and again. He was, in short, the only adult in the series that gave a damn about Harry as Harry, rather than 'The Boy Who Lived'.