Dramatic Engine: Fear v. Desire

[Vicki Merriman]

No: HPFGUIDX 1142

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Scott " <harry_potter00 at y...> 
wrote:
  
>  And what does he fear the most? Dementors, say the readers of 
> Prisoner of Azkaban--or perhaps more generally, all the forces of 
> evil that ally with Voldemort (not to mention> Voldemort himself, 
> particularly after the last chapters of GoF).

I agree.  The Boggart is supposed to show you your greatest fear.  
Before the end of GoF it appeared as Dementors.  However, Harry can 
control a dementor.  He created a full blown patronus which drove off 
the dementors at the end of PoA.  Now, most people lose their fear of 
something once they can control it, so the boggart in the maze should 
have appeared as something else, IMO.

Certainly after GoF, Harry should fear Voldy more than he fears the 
dementors.  After all, he knows what the dementors can do, but he can 
protect himself and his friends from them.  Voldemort, on the other 
hand, has friends known and unknown, and Harry doesn't know 
everything that he is capable of doing.

As a person faces his fears, the boggart should change also.

Vicki

P.s.  I got a kick out of the person who said they were their own 
class full of fears, and pictured the boggart shifting constantly in 
front of the same person.  Actually, I suspect that the Boggart can 
read a person sufficiently that it discovers our greatest fear 
whether or not we are aware of it ourselves.  So the boggart sifts 
through the group of possiblities and instinctively selects the worst 
one.

I'm not sure what my worst fear would be.  Possibly cockroaches.  
Either that or some psychological fear, maybe that I'll die alone and 
friendless.  I would expect a boggart to display more psychological 
fears from people than physical fears, such as spiders, roaches, etc.
  
> So, looking at the series as a whole, what do you think Harry wants 
> the most, and what does he fear the most?  And how do you think (or 
> hope!) Rowling will make those two things collide, and what will 
> happen when they do?

You already stated what Harry wants the most.  He wants to be 
normal.  He wants to be "Harry" and not "Famous Harry Potter with the 
scar."  He wants to have parents and a family, and certainly seems to 
value parental units more than the average teenager I know :-)  

What does he fear the most?  Two possibles.  On one level he fears 
that Voldemort will get back in control and that his parents will 
have died in vain.  However, on an entirely different level, I think 
that Harry fears the opposite of what he wants, i.e., that he will 
always be Famous Harry Potter and never just Harry, employed wizard, 
normal husband and, eventually, father.

Vicki