Wands and Magical Ability, Part Two

[fourfuries at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 24369

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., shall at s... wrote:
> > He came to 
> >Hogwarts without the baggage of hatred, envy, anger, etc
> 
> I don't quite accept that; Harry's abusive treatment at the hands 
of the Dursleys is at least equal to Tom Riddle's experience in its 
capacity to produce hatred ("how dare they refer to my parents like 
that") envy (Dudley's 32 presents vs a pair of old socks) and anger 
(Aunt Marge); as Dumbledore stresses, it is what he does with his 
experiences that differentiates them.  Either Harry or Neville could 
have good grounds for saying they "had" to join the dark side - sofar 
they are resisting admirably.
> 
> Susan

  I think you do agree.  I think I failed to be clear!  You have 
rightly pointed out the reasons why Harry COULD have turned evil.  
But the events of a person's life do not determine the "baggage" we 
carry away from those events.

  Even before he gets to Hogwarts, Harry displays tremendous, almost 
saintly perserverance and fortitude in just dealing with the 
Dursleys, as opposed to burning their house down (as Tom Riddle might 
have done).  His kindness and generousity  to Ron on the first train 
ride to Hogwarts came from his sensitivity to the feelings of 
others,which we are to assume he developed during his free time in 
the cupboard under the stair.  When he arrives at Diagon Alley, not 
only is he not snobby, stand-offish or rude, he is absolutely 
delightful for a boy who suddenly finds himself the center of the 
wizarding world.

  The "good" aspects of his character are already there.  They are 
unconscious and genuine.  Tom Riddle on the other hand, came to 
Hogwarts with an inarticulate but deadly hate, developed that hate 
into a deadly alter ego, and then devised a murderous plan to spread 
that hate across the wizarding world, that the whole world might come 
to "fear" his name, Lord Voldemort.

  My point is that that similar experiences will only produce similar 
results in similar people.  Other than superficial similarities of 
background discussed in CoS (and a minor transfer of the 
Parseltongue), Harry and Tom have nothing in common.  The are 
fundamentally different kinds of people.

4FR Hopeful