Can someone please explain the end of Harry Potter to me?

[Tonight37]

Please explain it to me as though I’m 5.

Is Albus Dumbledore good or bad?

What about Snape?

Thanks

I agree with this!

I actually do not think that’s a stretch at all and might explain why he was so particularly nasty to Neville.

Snape is obsessed with Lily and always had been. It is framed as kind of romantic which I feel, but it’s super creepy and intense.

Snape was one for the first and only people who knew about the prophecy…. and my fangirl mind has incorporated this into my own person HP canon 😂

I think the differences between the early books Dumbledore and Dumbledore post the end of the OOTP, is that the difference characters reflect Harry’s understanding and insight of who Dumbledore actually is.

Even though Dumbledore is a crucial and often mentioned character in the books, Harry and Dumbledore and not that close in terms of contact. It takes time over the books for that to build up, and Harry’s understanding of who Dumbledore is as a person, and of the role Dumbledore has played in his life, only truly gets going after the confrontation they have at the end of the fifth book.

my very Dumbledore loving brain has always justified is that Dumbledore genuinely didn't know; he was very busy being Dumbledore

Ok, sad I know but I've just gone and dug out the quote I knew I could half remember.
This is from dumbledore after Sirius dies:

‘Five years ago you arrived at Hogwarts, Harry, safe and whole, as I had planned and intended. Well – not quite whole. You had suffered. I knew you would when I left you on your aunt and uncle’s doorstep. I knew I was condemning you to ten dark and difficult years.’

He goes on to justify it talking about his mother's blood relative etc, but no explanation for why no one came round and gave the Dursleys a talking to.

Hogwarts would immediately fail OFSTED on safeguarding but my main problem with the wizarding world is that it takes an army of fairly young children to defeat a bunch of child-murdering adults. The bit where Harry gets in trouble for fending off dementors is laughable, especially when it's clearly self-defence. Dumbledore should obviously have gone apeshit at the ministry at that precise point.

Isn't the whole reason he gets in trouble at that point is because he can't prove there were dementors. He could have used that as cover for attacking Dudley. Until Mrs Figg backs him up.

But my main problem with the wizarding world is that it takes an army of fairly young children to defeat a bunch of child-murdering adults.

That's typical of children's fiction, though, is it not?

The pesky kids always come out ahead of the adult villains!

He could have used that as cover for attacking Dudley.

JKR made it clear they were trumped-up charges - Harry used a patronus in self-defence, he wasn't attacking anyone.

Yes, the Ministry is trying to discredit Harry at that point because he’s going around saying that Voldemort is back.

Yes I know. That's what i meant. The MofM decided they wanted him to punished so said he'd used magic illegally. We know it was self defence. Harry knew it was self defence. Dumbledore knew it was self defence.
But they had to prove it. Dumbledore going "ape shit" wouldn't have helped.

Yep

Omg thank you this is really interesting! Yes I remember this!

I guess I was trying to say that Dumbledore left Harry wide open to exploitation in that instance, even though he was - on the face of it - trying to protect him.

@SilverDoe he absolutely did know. Mrs figg was watching all those years she knew. The letter was literally addressed to the cupboard so they knew that. And I'm also convinced that he somehow got rid of social services interventions because no way could a school/neighbour not notice what was going on.
Also we saw that they gave him a bedroom once they were shamed by the letter so someone could have intervened sooner and made them be nicer.