"I occasionally feel the urge to pray that this woman doesn't actually think Dumbledore is a "good" teacher." - and you are so right! I, too, was actually more disturbed by this comment than by Harry's reaction, and Harry's reaction bothered me a lot.

If empathy and mercy are not the keys to his (eventual) triumph over Voldemort, I really hate to think what sort of morals Rowling is imparting. But I am hoping for the best. We'll see, in a year or so. In any case, I cannot see Dumbledore as the epitome of goodness, as Rowling says he is. He is far too hands-off and can sometimes be cruel; if he is the epitome of goodness, I am certainly right about Snape (I see him as a potential saint, in spite of his flaws. We are apparently supposed to see Dumbledore as an actual saint, in spite of his. I don't know. He's a good man, certainly, but I didn't detect a lot of wisdom from him in HBP.)

Oh- and I would say Sirius was both neglectful and manipulative, poor guy. But he did his best; it's obvious he really cared for Harry and wanted to do a difficult job (standing in for two missing parents) as well as he could. Who do you think was bashing him?