Or has Dumbledore let all his press after defeating Grindelwald go to his head and degrade whatever talent with people he used to have?
I don't know. All I know is that Dumbledore's recklessness in leaving things for the kids to get on with, without someone watching over their movements, concerned me as early as PS/SS. And his errors in judgement, his inability to read and handle people like Snape and Harry, have concerned me more and more with each book. All the more so because they're not just a couple of slightly prickly personalities who've had personal issues in their lives that require them to be handled with care, they're also people who because of their background and talents are important to the Order and its chances of success against Voldemort. Losing their confidence completely could be disastrous. Of course, it's always possible that at some point in book six or seven the two of them will find common ground in their disappointment in how Dumbledore has repaid their faith and loyalty, and finally achieve some measure of rapport. :-)
I too think that the prefect appointments weren't particularly well handled by the school, although as fifth year prefects they're still the lowest on the totem pole and to some extent therefore those appointments could be seen as being experiments... where the character-building of the kids' reaction to who does and doesn't get given that authority is more important than actually appointing the most effective kids to the job. So Remus probably got made prefect as much to make James and Sirius think about why they hadn't been as because he might be able to keep them under control. Ron got it because he needed a morale boost; Harry didn't because he'd already had his Quidditch triumph and the TriWizarding tournament and needed to learn to take a back seat to others from time to time.
It'll be interesting to see whether there are more than two prefects per house in the sixth and seventh years.
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Re: Snape and Dumbledore
Date: 2004-05-29 08:32 am (UTC)I don't know. All I know is that Dumbledore's recklessness in leaving things for the kids to get on with, without someone watching over their movements, concerned me as early as PS/SS. And his errors in judgement, his inability to read and handle people like Snape and Harry, have concerned me more and more with each book. All the more so because they're not just a couple of slightly prickly personalities who've had personal issues in their lives that require them to be handled with care, they're also people who because of their background and talents are important to the Order and its chances of success against Voldemort. Losing their confidence completely could be disastrous. Of course, it's always possible that at some point in book six or seven the two of them will find common ground in their disappointment in how Dumbledore has repaid their faith and loyalty, and finally achieve some measure of rapport. :-)
I too think that the prefect appointments weren't particularly well handled by the school, although as fifth year prefects they're still the lowest on the totem pole and to some extent therefore those appointments could be seen as being experiments... where the character-building of the kids' reaction to who does and doesn't get given that authority is more important than actually appointing the most effective kids to the job. So Remus probably got made prefect as much to make James and Sirius think about why they hadn't been as because he might be able to keep them under control. Ron got it because he needed a morale boost; Harry didn't because he'd already had his Quidditch triumph and the TriWizarding tournament and needed to learn to take a back seat to others from time to time.
It'll be interesting to see whether there are more than two prefects per house in the sixth and seventh years.