Given all this information, and combined with knowledge from the rest of the series, I'm forced to conclude that Dumbledore primarily regarded Sirius as a pawn in his chess game of Harry's life. Dumbledore had Hagrid make it clear to Sirius from the start that he was to stay out of the way where Harry was concerned, even though James and Lily wanted Sirius to raise Harry if anything were to happen to them. So I don't think it would have mattered one bit to Dumbledore if Sirius had stayed in Azkaban if it didn't come to be important to Harry. It's always been hard for me to believe that it was really that easy for Dumbledore to believe that James' dearest mate was the one to betray him; he had not enough doubt to even check out the facts of the story just a little? When Sirius did become free, and Harry began to care about him, Dumbledore used this to his advantage. When Harry had concerns that he wanted to share with someone like a parent, he went to Sirius, who in turn shared the information with Dumbledore. Dumbledore valued the service enabled by Harry and Sirius' relationship so that he kept Sirius a captive in his old home, exacerbating the instability of his already fragile mental health when he certainly could have made some arrangement to get Sirius a few whiffs of freedom had he cared to do so. I might even go as far to say that Dumbledore's disregard for Sirius extended to the point of him not rounding up Bellatrix with the other Death Eaters when Sirius was dueling with her -- why would he effortlessly round up the other Death Eaters but let her fight on? It is a pretty cynical view, but it would be hard to argue that it wouldn't be easier for Dumbledore to get Harry to walk into that forest without Sirius standing in the way.

Yeah; what gives? As I said earlier, one guess is that maybe Grindelwald ruined him for ever trusting anyone again.....


Exactly. He knows so many Order members from back in the first war; why would he not think that collaboration with someone like McGonagall or Moody would be valuable? As you point out, the stakes are high here -- the whole wizarding world is at stake. I thought Dumbledore believed that he could not be trusted with too much power, yet he chooses to be all-powerful here in crafting Harry's path to defeating Voldemort. Another irony is this: throughout the books, Dumbledore impresses upon Harry the importance of the trust and support of his friends. I would go as far as to say that it is a theme in the series. So why does Dumbledore thumb his nose at the concept of trusting the friends in his own life?

Grindewald occurred many years before the Voldemort/Harry saga. You would think Dumbledore would have gotten over it already. Grindewald did not betray Dumbledore's trust. Dumbledore himself chose not to see Grindewald as he was because he thought he and Grindewald would be the young guns who changed the world for the greater good. Dumbledore turned a blind and delusional eye to Grindewald's inate cruelty in the headlong pursuit of their own grand plant. It was only Arianna's death which awoke in Dumbledore a self-awareness of the love of power.

The secrecy tendency, however, was with Dumbledore all his life. We learn this in DH when the old geezer who thinks himself Dumbledore's closest friend says that not a lot was known about Dumbledore or his family. Dumbledore never chose to confide in any one while he was a student at Hogwarts and he certainly didn't do it as a teacher. Aberforth tells us Dumbledore learned this trait from his mother, Kendra.

I don't know that Dumbledore wanted Sirius dead or not. Had Harry insisted on living with Sirius during the holidays, this could have been arranged. Remember, Harry only had to be able to call #4 Privet Drive "home" and return there once per year to re-engage the charm....

...Sirius would not have been happy about Harry having to walk into the forest as a sacrificial lamb, but he would have accepted that this was Harry's choice to make. Sirius would have also thought James would have made the sacrifice and he would have known Lily would make such a sacrifice given that she gave her life for Harry....

Who do you think holds the most blame for Sirius's death? Voldemort? Harry? Dumbledore? Kreacher? Bellatrix?

....Over all I think it was a mixture of all off the above. Some more than others, Harry the least, that damn veil the most!

I'm not sure that Dumbledore trusted Sirius enough to think that he would come to this conclusion. I know that he did not trust him enough (perhaps rightly so) to allow him even the slightest amount of freedom in OotP, even though the grand assembly of wizarding knowledge assembled in the Order could certainly have come up with some way to keep him safe and undetected for brief periods of time. I think it is possible that Dumbledore just didn't want to take the risk that Sirius would do something to make his plans with Harry more difficult. There was certainly a lot at stake, and as Sirius_Craic mentioned, Sirius might just have been a victim for 'the greater good'.

...I wonder, for example, how much Dumbledore told the Potters and the Longbottoms about the Prophecy. We know the Potters went into hiding, but we never hear of the Longbottoms being hidden as well....

...We know from PoA, that James did not believe Sirius was a spy and gave him the job of secret-keeper. Did Dumbledore present James and Lily with evidence that someone was working against the Order? We don't know.

...In PoA, why didn't anyone think it fit to give Harry the story of Sirius' relationship to the Potters? Could it be because Dumbledore did not want Harry to know? ...

It seems to be an endless list of important information being kept from Harry throughout the series which leads to various incidents. Some of the incidents help Harry, others work to his detriment...

...So I guess you could say Dumbledore is somewhat to blame for Sirius's death, if only because he wasn't completely honest with Harry or Sirius. BUT... what if he had been? I don't think it would've been the same series at all.