Harry's temperament/killing Sirius

[pigwidgeon37 at yahoo.it]

No: HPFGUIDX 21459

Catherine wrote:

„I have often wondered how Harry was going to kill Sirius. The 
conclusion I came to, was that Harry has on occassions, let his 
emotions get the better of him and performed uncontrolled magic - the 
blowing up of Marge is an excellent example of this."
<>
„Now, however, I think that 
they are more similar than I thought - Harry's anger at Aunt Marge 
was a culmination of years of abuse - the one week we see at the 
beginning of PoA could be seen as a microcosm of the whole of her 
treatment of him over the past years. Harry, until this point had 
reined in his anger - controls it until the memory of his parents are 
abused which is when he loses control. With Sirius, Harry has had 
time to dwell on his alleged betrayal of his parents, and seeing 
Sirius in the flesh has the effect of bringing his long-felt anger to 
the fore."

I don't think, personally, that Harry *would* have been able to kill 
Sirius, neither in terms of magical skills nor in terms of character. 
I mean, if he stopped because of Crookshanks, he wouldn't have killed 
a human being. It was just a *wish*, an uncontrollable urge, the 
gesture of complete helplessness in a situation more than one number 
too big for him.

still Catherine writing:
„What also interests me is the fact that on the few occassions that 
Harry does lose his temper, it is generally because of his parents. 
Aunt Marge, Sirius, Snape." 

I think that a person who has been growing up like Harry did, is 
indeed very difficult to humiliate- even if I wouldn't say the 
Dursleys (except for Dudley) beat him, the way they treated him 
didn't leave him many possibilities of developing something like 
pride and self- consciousness. Just think of the clothes they forced 
him to wear at school!! One group member coined the very good 
expression (in that case related to Snape)of being on "emotional 
auto- pilot". IMO, that's the way Harry got through the first eleven 
years of his life: Being on auto-pilot, allowing himself the odd joke 
at Dudley, but nothing else.
His only source of pride, after having found out about his parents, 
are James and Lily, the heroic couple that died protecting him and 
thinking him worth of this sacrifice.
But the only point of pride is also the only vulnerable point: He 
really loses his temper when somebody insults his parents (Marge, 
snape) and, of course, with Sirius.

Susanna