Average Harry?

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 18847

Wow.  Naama's post was so poetic that I feel like I'm kind of 
shuffling in after the grand finale with my oh-so-ordinary 
observations, but for what they're worth, here they are.

Ebony wrote:

>If he's Joe Public, they'll kill him.  If he's not, they'll think
>twice before they try.

I think they'll think twice anyway, because they won't be sure.  Why 
did Tom Riddle sic a basilisk on him, sit and watch him die of poison, 
etc. before getting desperate and raising his wand?  Why didn't he 
just kill him with the wand immediately?  I think he's afraid of him. 
 He knows from Ginny that his adult self failed to kill Harry, and he 
doesn't fully understand why (I know Harry tells him it's because of 
his mother's love, but if I were TR I still wouldn't be entirely 
sure).  The Death Eaters know that Voldemort has twice tried to kill 
Harry and very weird, dangerous things have happened to V as a result. 
 Add Harry's having killed him, and how many of them are going to take 
the risk that he's mortal?

For my part, I don't for a moment think that Harry can't be hurt by 
Voldemort.  I think if V had skipped the duelling drama and just cut 
Harry's throat while he had him bound to the tombstone, that would 
have been the end of the story.  To some extent, Voldemort is 
right-Harry has escaped him through luck.  But not only luck:  also 
through Lily's sacrifice and, in later encounters, Harry's own 
strength of character (cf our discussion on why Harry's wand forced 
Voldemort's to regurgitate its spells and not the other way around).  
It's =possible= that from his birth there has been something about 
Harry that makes it inherently impossible for Voldemort to kill him, 
but I doubt it.  

As for Average Harry or Joe Public--I am an anti-fan of the Uberharry 
train of thought (::gasps of surprise from list::), but I'm not too 
crazy about these titles either.  Harry isn't necessarily average; 
he's particularly talented in various ways, as you point out (though 
not necessarily more talented than lots of other wizards), and besides 
that, his mysterious history makes it clear that he is unique (at 
least vis-a-vis Voldemort) and he and everyone else knows it.  The 
question is in what way he is unique.  To use Naama's distinction, is 
he unique in substance or is he just a boy who, like many ordinary 
people, can be quite extraordinary if he fulfills his potential?  How 
JKR handles this will have a big impact on whether HP stays one of my 
all-time favorites or ends up being disappointing.  I'm not too 
worried.  One of her biggest themes is that we are shaped by our 
choices and that Seeing notwithstanding, the future is indeterminate. 
 If Harry is triumphant it will be not because he was destined to be 
so ("the stars have been read wrongly before now," after all) but 
because of what he chose to make of his considerable talents.

But I see the hands waving and the frustrated voices shouting:  "Then 
why did Voldemort want to kill him?!"  There's no denying that there 
was something about the 15-month-old Harry that made him a threat to 
Voldemort, or at least Voldemort thought so.  I like Kimberly's 
thought best (way back at message 9358) about how prophecy and 
uniqueness and choice can all be factors.  Even if there proves to 
have been a prophecy that this boy would defeat Voldemort and the 
prophecy comes true, it doesn't mean that  that or any other prophecy 
=had= to come true in the HP universe.  We are not puppets acting out 
a drama whose end has already been written; our choices are real and 
make a difference.  I love what The Phantom Tollbooth has to say about 
this.  After Milo succeeds in his quest, Azaz and the Mathemagician 
let him in on the secret they'd only hinted at before:  that his quest 
was impossible.  So much for prophecies (but if they'd told him it was 
impossible before, methinks the prophecy would have come true).  I 
think Dumbledore would take a similar approach.  He believes that 
people's decisions, not to mention blind chance, can overrule what 
would seem to be fate.

Another theme that is just hinted at in the books so far, but that 
supports the idea that Harry is talented-brave-strong-etc. but not 
superhuman, is that Voldemort is not the same thing as Evil Itself.  
Defeating him will not end evil for all time.  He is just the latest, 
and one of the most powerful, in a history of dark magic that will 
always have to be fought.  Why then should Harry be Unique in All the 
History of Wizardry?  He may well be uniquely suited to fight 
Voldemort-they mirror one another-but other dark wizards will arise 
and will have to be fought by other people, bringing the same 
strengths Harry has brought to this struggle:  courage, integrity, 
perseverance (the positive side of his stubbornness), a sound 
conscience, and basic human kindness.

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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