Seeking: Is it meant to be a good thing?

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48276

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Melody 
<Malady579 at h...>" <Malady579 at h...> wrote:

>  I do think that Voldemort is
 afraid of weakness and that motivates him to seek power.  He 
does notwant to be seen as weak *at all*.  So if we are to say 
that it is this fear of weakness that is the problem with the creed, 
then we couldalso draw a parallel to Harry's fear of loosing being 
his motivation for seeking.  Both are signs of weakness in the 
eyes of others.  Both Voldemort and Harry do not want that 
stigmatism added to their image.You imply that Crouch looses 
faith in the ways of good and let his pursuit of destroying the evils 
taint his decisions.  Harry on the> other hand does not do this.  
He has more faith in the system.  Well, he is young and 
impressionable.  And in times of despair, good has never let him 
down.  Though it has let his parents down it seems. Hmmm, that 
is a sad thought.  

<snip>
> 
> So is the problem with seeking occur when the seeker looses 
faith? Crouch lost faith in good defeating evil nobly.  Voldemort 
lost faith that the WW would find him to be the pinnacle of 
existence.  Siriuslost faith in the WW justice system.  Hmmm, I 
like the trend Pippin.Harry in the other hand, has not lost faith
yet.  
So his "seeking" is about more than lost dreams. Well actually it 
is motivated by Oliver Wood having lost dreams if Harry failed.
<< 

Well, Harry has twice now seen what seems to be negative 
consequences from acting nobly. He spared Pettigrew, who was 
then able to escape punishment and assist Voldemort. Then he 
asked Cedric to take the Cup with him, which resulted in 
Cedric's death. 

Dumbledore says we're not supposed to connect the dots, but 
it's difficult. I was trying to find a phrasing that would indicate I 
didn't hold taking the Cup as a proximate cause of Cedric's 
death and I gave up, even though I know perfectly well that "After 
this, therefore because of this" is a fallacy.  So I guess the 
question is, is Harry going to continue  to keep his faith, or is he 
going to start finding it more difficult?

As to Harry's Seeking, his motivation is not only  fear of losing. 
His motivation is  also to do something that would have made 
his father proud, or at least that's how McGonagall encourages 
the eleven year old Harry to train hard.

The  Quidditch rules contain an incentive to cheat. The opposing 
team scores a possible 10 points on a penalty, versus 150 
points if they catch the Snitch. What's worse, you can't get thrown 
out of the game for cheating. What Krum could have done, if he 
were a less honorable player, was to  injure Lynch badly so that 
he could pursue the Snitch unopposed, with the hope that he 
could catch it before Ireland's Chasers had enough margin to 
win.  He does in fact attempt to disable Lynch, but by the 
honorable means of the Wronski feint, rather than by  a 
dishonorable deliberate collision. 

While Fred and George take an 'eye for an eye' attitude, as Deb 
pointed out in her excellent post,  the Slytherin team's  credo is 
clearly "Do unto others before they do unto you"  The Slytherin 
strategy works. They have seven straight years of victories to 
their credit, if not their honor. Harry, on the other hand,  ignores 
the advice to "Knock her off her broom if you have to." He doesn't 
want to lose, but he'd rather lose the game than his honor, even 
when others on his side are playing dirty. So I guess the 
conclusion is, "Seek, but not at the expense of honor", where 
honor is dependent on virtue.

You said that Sirius was without faith, and I would add that Lupin 
is without hope and Snape is without charity.

Pippin