Bob Schroeck Wrote:Ah, sorry, I didn't think of that as anything but regret. In the long run, keeping Harry alive, even if not loved, was better than having him dead. I do think the side effects were considered but there weren't any better options. The protections were very strong and kept everyone that would kill him away. If you look at it we don't know what happened before he was a Hogwarts but we do know that he was not really harmed until he had been away from the house for a while. It only took two weeks to "recharge" the wards protections during the summers. That should mean that while he lived there before Hogwarts he was protected all the time. Once he went to Hogwarts the protections started to fail and allowed him to be harmed.bmull Wrote:"You had suffered. I knew you would when I left you on your aunt and uncle's doorstep. I knew I was condeming you to ten dark and difficult years."Bob Schroeck Wrote:As for 1, well, Dumbledore had some idea what he'd put Harry into, vis-a-vis his aunt's family and their attitudes -- he did admit and apologize for that in the denouement of one of the books, though I can't remember which one.I don't remember this, he apologized for keeping Harry in the dark about the Prophecy in book 5 and then for not telling Harry about the Hallows in book 7.
Dumbledore says this to Harry in chapter 37 of Order of the Phoenix. I did err in that he never really explicitly apologized. He expressed regret and sadness, and made some justifications, but never actually said "I'm sorry for doing that to you." A lot of fic writers have seized upon this passage as proof of a malevolent Dumbldore, when all it really is is proof of a pragmatic one -- is it better to put 1-year-old Harry into a family that will treat him well, only for him to possibly be killed by the remainders of Voldemort's movement within months, or put him in with a possibly abusive family that will nonetheless guarantee his survival? Dumbledore chooses a living Harry over a dead one. Period. He regrets the side effects, but they do not come into consideration for him at all.
I do think that what using his blood to resurrect Voldemort did was just allow Voldemort to touch Harry and not be harmed. If Voldemort was allowed access by the blood to the wards I feel he would have attacked and killed everyone at anytime. Nothing else makes any sense of having to wait until Harry was an adult to be able to attack the house.