Angry Harry/ Strife... and also re: Mirror of Erised

[find_the.rivier at ntlworld.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26710

Harry and jealousy: the green-eyed monster... oooh, now there's a 
thought...  

Back in CoS, Chapter 5, Harry's brooding as the summer holiday comes 
to an end.  "...his month at the Burrow had been the happiest of his 
life.  It was difficult not to feel jealous of Ron when he thought of 
the Dursleys and the sort of welcome he could expect next time he 
turned up in Privet Drive."   

So Harry is either superhuman at 12, in terms of controlling his 
emotions, or he _does_ feel jealousy, albeit sporadic and hidden 
(from a 'lifetime' of keeping his feelings to himself and lacking 
anyone to share them with).  He is emotionally controlled, even 
constrained: his jealousy doesn't tend to upset his canoe (and would 
he be a happier bunny if it did?).  

Ron lets jealousy swamp him, but that again makes sense in the 
context of his 'lifetime' of emotional candour.  When he's not 
thinking in the chess arena, Ron is a far more emotionally reactive 
creature than either Hermione or, especially, Harry.  Quick to anger, 
quick to shake off the bad mood, most of the time.  I wonder, if 
Harry's own pride and bitterness hadn't kept him back, how would Ron 
have reacted if Harry had walked up to him the morning after the cup 
ceremony and forced him to talk it out?  a pair of bloody noses 
later, it would all have been history and Harry wouldn't have had his 
month of misery.  (Ron either.  But for some reason, I see it as 
Harry's place rather than Ron's to have made that move.  Is this 
simply because I'm an abject admirer of his red-headed Ronnishness?  
I'd love someone to give me a valid reason for putting the onus on 
Harry.)

Sure, Harry gets 'special' treatment from all the Weasleys.  They're 
generous spirits, who recognise that rich, marvellous, world-saving, 
evil-squishing Harry needs help more than they do.  Whether it's 
driving or Flooing to the rescue, giving him the Marauders' Map, or 
knitting him the (marginally) more tasteful jumpers.  They can afford 
to, because they have the unshakeable fall-back of all-encompassing 
family love for each other - the love that enables older siblings to 
mercilessly twit the younger ones, or a mother to give her child a 
furious dressing-down when he gets into trouble... 'cause when the 
chips are down, if anyone outside the family unit tried to do the 
same, they'd have the whole pack to answer to.  (Such is my, ahem, 
experience!)

I think this is why the contrast continues to be pointed up, between 
Harry's fiscal wealth and the Weasley's fiscal poverty.  Harry yearns 
to give them what he has an abundance of, but can't - because he's 
not really family, and because he believes they would be offended.  
He can pass on the Triwizard blood money, since making a gift of it 
to the twins is probably the only way it can be redeemed from the 
tainted manner of its acquisition.  In contrast, the Weasleys have a 
wealth of unconditional love, spontaneous emotion, and no constraint 
about lavishing it on Harry.  And it will still never be quite as 
good as the real thing for him, like Luke noted before, because 
Voldemort has deprived him of the 'real' love of parents and 
siblings.  

One of the overall characteristics of the Weasleys is that they're 
generally WYSIWYG - they live as they feel, including affection, 
exuberance, and temper.  Mrs Weasley's hellfire reactions to her 
offsprings' misdemeanours are one example of this.  When she tries to 
comfort Harry in GoF, and he can't quite give in to the solace that 
would afford, it suggests that no matter how much the Weasleys en 
masse offer Harry the same unconditional family emotional 3-D 
experience as their own flesh and blood, Harry himself can't give in 
to it.  He brings the weather with him, if you like, and (again, Luke 
kind of put this less ramblingly before) I think he is more likely to 
be the architect of his own misfortune, by believing or feeling he 
has valid reason for his jealousy, when he is the only one denying 
himself. 

So...

> Hey Amber,
> 
> I was thinking about your question and I came up with a few 
possible ideas (although admittedly not good ones).
> 
> 1.  Maybe Ron or Hermione could betray Harry perhaps accidently, 
but it could trigger the memory of the betrayal that lead to his 
parents' death.  
> 
> 2.  Also maybe they could end the friendship without a big fight.  
> For example,  I was thinking that Harry could probably be pretty 
> moody and depressed.  Maybe he pushes his friends away and they all 
> slowly drift apart?  
> 
Knuts to knickers I'll bet that the biggest betrayal for Harry would 
be if his surrogate closest family, in the shape of Ron and Hermione, 
became involved romantically with each other - mutually closing him 
out of a deeper level of emotional engagement, and so preventing him 
from securing the same kind of bond with either of them.  It would be 
pretty terrible for Harry, wouldn't it?  For that amongst other 
reasons, I sincerely hope it doesn't happen - but if JKR wants to put 
us all through the mill-race, then she'll get Ron and Hermione to 
fall in love with each other, and leave poor Harry out there, once 
again in second place, and see what that does to his emotional self-
control... at fifteen or sixteen, ye gods...

Re: Mirror of Erised.  Had this thought in the bath last night.  When 
Hagrid gets Harry the photo album, Harry doesn't open it and think Oo-
er, these pictures don't look anything like that bunch of weirdoes I 
saw in the Mirror...  Methinks the images he sees in Erised are the 
real thing.  (So who is the missing grandfather?)  Me also thinks we 
will all see Ron holding the House Cup, the Quidditch Cup, the F.A. 
Cup and eveything else by the end of book 7.  Yepster, colour me 
C.R.A.B!  as soon as I can affird the fees that is.

Riv

Hey!  two knuts sure gets a whole rabble of words out of me round 
here...