Dirty!Harry and Stoned!Harry

[dicentra63]

No: HPFGUIDX 43371


Elkins: 
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.   

Dicentra:
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.  

So what changed?  What persuaded Harry within that short time to
recognize this higher moral code?  

bboy: 
I'm pretty sure you answered your own question. Harry had a long time
in which his hatred and anger toward Sirius could build. On the other
hand, the story 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.

Dicentra:
OK.  I went back and read Shrieking Shack again last night, and found
something rather interesting.  I can buy the argument that Harry
didn't turn his wand on Pettigrew because the heat of the moment had
dissipated.  But I found something even more interesting.  Pettigrew
has been revealed, and now he's trying to find an ally:

"Pettigrew knelt, trembling uncontrollably, and turned his head slowly
toward Harry.

"'Harry ... Harry ... you look just like your father ... just like
him. ...'

[Sirius rebukes him in all caps.]

"'Harry,' whispered Pettigrew, shuffling toward him, hands
outstretched. 'Harry, James wouldn't have wanted me killed.... James
would have understood, Harry ... he would have shown me mercy....'"

The next time Harry speaks is when he jumps in front of Pettigrew to
save him, on the next page.  When he says he doesn't think his father
would have wanted Sirius and Remus to become killers.

It would appear that *Peter* is the one who suggests to Harry what the
higher moral code is.  Why would that hold any water for Harry?  Why
would Peter's words persuade him that his father wouldn't have wanted
him killed?  The narrator doesn't look into Harry's head during this
time, so there's no clue there.  And not only that, as bboy pointed
out, the "he deserves it" sentiment isn't actually gone, it's just
been redirected at Azkaban instead of death, which if you ask me is
worse than death (and in many ways equals death, just more slowly).

Has Harry actually chosen a higher moral code or has he just decided
to protect his parents' friends -- and to hell with the real traitor?

Oh, and BTW, for those of you fretting about how Sirius let Snape's
head scrape on the tunnel's roof, I noticed this: "[Snape] clicked his
fingers, and the ends of the cords that bound Lupin flew to his hands.
'I'll drag the werewolf. Perhaps the dementors will have a kiss for
him too --'"

In my book, dragging a conscious man's body across bare, stony ground
is much worse than a few scrapes on the head of an unconscious man.  

--Dicentra, Sirius apologist