Question regarding Dumbledore

[wook77]

Ok, question for the flist and any who can answer it.

Long rambling intro: I was re-reading Chapter 26 of HBP last night to do research on the cave and Inferi.

When I was reading... the below caught my eye. (directly quoted from page 572 of the American Version)

And obediently, Dumbledore drank, as though it was an antidote Harry offered him, but upon draining the goblet, he sank to his knees, shaking uncontrollably.

"It's all my fault, all my fault," he sobbed. "Please make it stop, I know I did wrong, oh please make it stop and I'll never, never again..."

What do you think Dumbledore did? Is this about Harry's parents? Is this about Snape? Is this about Malfoy? Is this about Aberforth's goat?



I honestly don't know what i think. I really dislike evil!Dumbledore so I don't think that it's all about how he did something extremely awful and evil.

Instead, I think it's something that he honestly regrets. Either his inability to act quickly enough to save Harry's parents. That seems a reasonable explanation but my curiosity is saying that I'm wrong on that one.

Is this about Snape somehow? Is it Dumbledore's "fault" that Snape is forced to go back to the DE's and he's regretting that now?


What are your thoughts and feelings on this?

Comments

[noxasclepia.livejournal.com]

I read a theory once that guessed it was one of the two kids Tom tortured in the cave all those years back.

[wook77.livejournal.com]

Ohh, really good thought there.

Question though... where is it put down that Tom tortured two kids in the cave? I'm woefully ignorant on this entire situation and hence the need for research.

[noxasclepia.livejournal.com]

It's just speculation, but the book has some interesting comments about the kids, so I can see where the theory might come from:

01
"[On] the summer outing - we take them out, you know, once a year, to the countryside or to the seaside - well, Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop were never quite right afterwards, and all we ever got out of them was that they'd gone into a cave with Tom Riddle. He swore they'd just gone exploring, but something happened in there, I'm sure of it."
(HBP-UK, pg. 251)

02
"His powers, as you heard, were surprisingly well-developed for such a young wizard and - most interestingly and ominously of all - he had already discovered that he had some measure of control over them, and begun to use them consciously. And as you saw, they were not the random experiments typical of young wizards: he was already using magic against other people, to frighten, to punish, to control. The little stories of the strangled rabbit and the young boy and girl he lured into the cave were most suggestive ... I can make them hurt if I want to ..."
(HBP-UK pg.259)