It’s a well-known running joke in the later Harry Potter books that Dawlish the auror is only mentioned when he’s being hexed (Dumbledore in OoTP and HBP), confunded (by the Order of the Phoenix in DH to give the wrong date for Harry’s departure), escaped from (Hagrid in OoTP, Dirk Cresswell in DH), or embarrassed by some other epic fail such as being put in St. Mungo’s by an old woman who wears a hat with a dead vulture on it (Augusta Longbottom). His one shining moment is being praised by Dumbledore as an excellent auror who got Outstanding on all his N.E.W.T.s, but this is followed by an admonition that Dumbledore will hurt him if he tries to make an arrest. Kind of a back-handed compliment. “I’m sure you’re an excellent auror, but by ‘excellent’ I mean an auror who has as much chance of arresting me as does Madame Pomfrey or Winky the house elf.” Maybe Dawlish’s curse is to be good enough to get all the tough assignments but not good enough to succeed at them. Who else was going to successfully track Dumbledore on his horcrux-hunting missions? Scrimgeour? Umbridge? (This theory kind of breaks down with Neville’s grandmother, though. To be put in the hospital by her can’t be good for your career when you’re supposed to be a top auror. That’s a note in the personnel file for sure.) Rowling has said that Dawlish had kind of become a punching bag for the Order of the Phoenix by the end of Deathly Hallows, so he wasn’t firing on all cylinders, but this hardly seems like a ringing defense. She just does not like this character. All his successes go unmentioned and his failures take center stage. I think a boy named Dawlish kicked Jo Rowling’s puppy when she was a little girl. It’s open to revision, but that’s my working theory.
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