[HPFGU-OTChatter] Halloween and Harry

[Mrs.) Lee Storm (God is the Healing Force]

[Hilaire]:
| Hi all!  I'm a lurker and finally have something to ask.  If you've
| already covered this and I missed it, point me in the right direction,
| please.  Here is what I wonder.  Why isn't Harry depressed at 
| Halloween?
| Most people I know who have lost loved ones often experience some
| mourning around the death date.  Now I know he was a baby when he lost
| them, but I was still surprised that this issue wasn't covered.  I
| especially thought I'd see it in Sorcerer's Stone.  Any enlightening
| thoughts about this?  Thanks in advance!

[Lee]:
Well, first, welcome from Lurkdom. :-)

I think you've answered your own question, friend...he has no real memory of
his parents and the Volde attack is only a blurry recall, mostly exacerbated
by the Dimentors.  I think things will strike home when he returns to
Godrick's Hollow.  For now, there's really nothing like a tangible memory,
only what the Dimentors have resurrected.

It's kind of difficult to feel depressed , IMHO, if one doesn't really have
a memory of the person lost.  I know I had a grandfather; I have recordings
of him and everything.  He died when I was barely two years old.  I know
from my Mom and Grandmother (Oma) that he adored me and kept me close to him
a lot, but I have absolutely no memory of it, of him, anything, so I don't
have any feelings one way or other about his death, only that the nature of
it, cancer, was awful.

Even with the deaths of my mother and grandmother, both back in 1980 and
1981, I don't feel anything on the deathdates...they're no different than
any other day for me.

People view things in so many different ways.  For myself, I don't believe
in making anniversaries of deaths.  Perhaps I may seem heartless, but every
year on 9/11, I sit and shake my head while people on the TV before me are
going through their grief again and again.  One has to move forward away
from the grieving to the light of what can be, again IMHO.  I guess I'm not
a griever; I sheds my tears and go forth to something new, a manner which
totally befuddled my relatives at my mother's funeral (and Mom and I were
like sisters, too).

In a nutshell, everyone views death differently and, I think, deaths like
Dd's and Cedric's and Sirius's are going to effect Harry a lot more potently
because (1) he really knew them and had interacted with them and remembered
them and how they died, and (2) he knew he was loved by Dd and Sirius, was
loyal to both Dd and Sirius, and may want a bit of revenge for the deaths of
those for whom he had so much love an respect.

I just thought of another thing which might touch here...remember, it wasn't
until Cedric's death that he saw the thestrals.  This means that he not only
saw but reacted and remembered.  He hadn't seen the thestrals before even
though, technically, he had seen a death but his memory and feeling for it
were not tangible.

Hope this rambling waffle makes sense.  It turned out longer than I thought
it would, but it is a complex issue.

Cheers on this rainy day.

Lee :-)
Do not walk behind me,    | Lee Storm
I may not care to lead;   | N2FGC
Do not walk before me,    | n2fgc at arrl.net (or)
I may not care to follow; | n2fgc at optonline.net
Walk beside me, and be my friend.