Harry

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 17232

Great summary, Joywitch!

I would add that one of Harry's crucial strengths at the climax of 
PS/SS is his purity of intention.  He finds the stone only because he 
wants nothing other than to get to it before Quirrell does.  No 
glimmer of "plus I could live forever!," or he wouldn't have found 
it.  Character is an integral part of magic, as we see in other 
instances, e.g. resistance to the Imperius.
  
Question 7)  I don't think it's too much that Harry has an innate 
talent for Quidditch.  Most things in the magical world, he has to 
work at.  He's obviously talented--summoning a powerful Patronus at 
age 13, e.g.--but most of these things don't come easily.  It seems 
realistic (and makes me happy) that he has one thing "he [can] do 
without being taught."  He realizes he has this ability, and the 
happiness that comes with it, at a time that he's still feeling new 
and insecure in the wizarding world.  Flying is like a great 
gift--something wonderful that he can have without working or 
suffering for it.

Amber wrote:

>I wouldn't see Harry's dying as a defeat at all. Dying to save the
>world from an unspeakable evil...well, that's something.

I agree, and I think Harry would too--he decided back at age 11 that 
he'd rather die than let Voldemort take over.  He'd think it very 
unfair that he had to die, though, and so would I!!  (Not to mention 
that I'd be suicidal.)

Also, re: the anti-romantic rant (lol!), I am an incurable romantic, 
hope to spend the rest of my life deeply in love, and do think love is 
"the ultimate emotion," but I don't particularly want Harry to ride 
off into the sunset with anyone either.  I think if Harry does fall in 
love it will be more nuanced than that.  JKR has spared us the details 
of his crush--I mean, he must do more than just imagine Cho gazing at 
him admiringly now and then, right?  Doesn't he ever fantasize about 
talking to her, or making out with her?  I bet he does, but there are 
some things I'd rather not see in HP (that's what fanfic is for <g>), 
and JKR seems to agree so far.  So if Harry does fall in love, I don't 
think we'll be subjected to too many scenes of his walking on air sans 
broomstick. 

Morag wrote:

>A father-figure who was able to be around more of the time might be a 
>bit much to cope with all of a sudden.  I know he wants to go and 
live with 
>Sirius, but he is not devastated when he can't.

I think he is, although it may be more the chance to escape from the 
Dursleys that he regrets losing.

Of all the things he has to be upset about at the end of PA, this is 
explicitly stated to be the worst, worse even than his fear of 
Voldemort's return.

************************

Harry had never approached the end of a school year in worse spirits . 
. . .
  It wasn't only Professor Lupin's departure that was weighing on his 
mind.  He couldn't help thinking a lot about Professor Trelawney's 
prediction.  He kept wondering where Pettigrew was now, whether he had 
sought sanctuary with Voldemort yet.  But the thing that was lowering 
Harry's spirits most of all was the prospect of returning to the 
Dursleys.  For maybe half an hour, a glorious half hour, he had 
believed he would be living with Sirius from now on . . . his parents' 
best friend . . . it would have been the next best thing to having his 
own father back . . . . Harry couldn't halp feeling miserable when he 
thought of the home he might have had, and the fact that it was now 
impossible. (PA 22)

************************

Sirius is still a vague figure at that point--one who is very 
appealing to Harry, and you laid out all the reasons why, but not, 
it's true, a real person to him yet.  But even though Harry knows 
Sirius better for what he stands for than who he really is, he's still 
devastated by this lost opportunity.

Naama wrote:

>BTW, to all you lit crits out there - how do you do 
>protagonist's death in Third Person Limited?

You're with him right 'til the moment he dies.  Then you have to end 
the book or switch POV!

Penny wrote:

>when Harry suggests that the Dursleys leave him by himself while they 
take Dudley
>to the zoo for his birthday, Petunia responds, "What & come back to 
find
>the house in ruins?"  We (and Harry) assume she means that *he* would
>destroy the house if left alone in it (we later wonder if she was
>referring to accidental magic)

And Harry says "I won't blow up the house."  Which is exactly how 
Petunia describes what happened to James and Lily--"then she got 
herself blown up."  Harry just means "Geez, I'm almost 11, I think I 
can be entrusted to leave the house undamaged," but Petunia probably 
hears those words as very ominous.

Ebony wrote:

>He didn't choose them.  At all.  I re-read PS/SS a couple of weeks 
ago... 
>they were all just sort of thrown together.  Friends by circumstance.

and Penny concurred:

>Ebony said it first, but I thought it immediately when I read your
>questions.  Harry didn't *choose* them.  Friendships like that just
>happen.

What is a "friend by circumstance"?  All of my friends are people with 
whom I was "thrown together," but they didn't "just happen."  We still 
chose each other, rather than all the other people we have been thrown 
together with in our lives; we chose to pursue the acquaintance, to 
deepen the relationship, etc.  Do you really think Harry and Ron are 
only friends because they shared their first ride to Hogwarts, or that 
Harry and Hermione are only friends because he helped rescue her from 
a troll?

The word "chose" stood out to me also, since fate is always a part of 
how friendships happen, but to say they "just happen" seems to 
sidestep Joy's question:  what do Ron and Hermione mean to Harry, that 
he is friends with them rather than someone else?

Amy Z

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   "This is a =girls'= bathroom," she said, eyeing
 Ron and Harry suspiciously. "=They're= not girls."
   "No," Hermione agreed.
                   -HP and the Chamber of Secrets
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