Dirty!Harry and Stoned!Harry

[bboy_mn]

No: HPFGUIDX 43344

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "dicentra63" <dicentra at x> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "ssk7882" <skelkins at a...> wrote:
> > 
> > Here we touch on TBAY's Stoned!Harry: Harry as the living
> > embodiment of the Philosopher's Stone, as an agent of spiritual 
> > renewal and transcendence.  By intervening in the Shrieking 
> > Shack, Harry is not really saving Pettigrew at all. ...  He is 
> > saving *Sirius* (and al so Remus), just as James once saved 
> > Sirius and Remus by intervening in the prank, and just as Harry 
> > and James will soon symbolically unite to save Sirius from the
> > dementors.  By intervening to insist upon the recognition of 
> > a higher moral code than "he deserves it," Harry is acting as an 
> > agent of transformative and redemptive moral change, one which can 
> > serve to heal both the wounds of injustice and the wounds of the 
> > past.   
> 
> As true as all this is, it seems so incongruous that Harry was on 
> the verge of killing Sirius only an hour or so earlier.  Harry's 
> rage at Sirius had been simmering ever since he overheard that 
> conversation in The Three Broomsticks.  He even asserted to Lupin 
> that Sirius "deserved" the dementor's kiss.  His impulse to kill 
> Sirius was pure hatred and vengeance, not at all different from 
> Sirius's desire to kill Pettigrew.
> 
> So what changed?  What persuaded Harry within that short time to
> recognize this higher moral code?  It's understandable that he'd
> decide to save his father's friends, based on what he believes his
> father would have done, but why didn't his rage turn to Pettigrew? 
> Why don't we see Harry himself killing him, or at least pointing a
> wand at him and trying to get up the nerve to do it?  I'll have to
> read Shrieking Shack again for clues, but I really don't remember
> Harry having any epiphany apart from realizing that Sirius is
> innocent.
> 
> --Dicentra

I'm pretty sure you answered your own question. Harry had a long time
in which his hatred and anger toward Sirius could build. Then he is
confronted by a 'heat of the battle' situation. Harry and friends are
being held at wand point by Sirius, Sirius has just attack and broken
the leg of his best friend (Ron), he appears to have already made two
attempts on Harry's life, and I'm sure Harry assumes that he and his
friends are in mortal peril; I would say emtions (fear, anger, hate)
are running high in the moment before Harry physically attacks Sirus.

On the other hand, the sotry about Wormtail came about in a long
somewhat convoluted conversation. So there wasn't the 'heat of the
battle' emotions, he didn't have month for the anger to fester, and in
saving Sirius, he has already chosen the higher moral ground. 

Harry is not completely forgiving and has not lost a desire for
revenge but his revenge is to let Wormtail go to Azkaban and live
amoung the Dementors because 'he deserves it'.

Just some thoughts.

bboy_mn