Poor little Harry/good character

[Katze]

No: HPFGUIDX 34701

lucky_kari wrote:

> Which leads me to wonder. Certainly, something of Lily and James's
> love stayed with Harry. Certainly, the Dursleys' current behaviour is
> so bad that wouldn't be the end of the story.

I don't think love is the only thing that saved Harry. Just who is Harry
hearing in his head when he throws off the imperious curse? There wasn't
a reference to Harry never hearing this voice before. I'm wondering if
Lily put more into Harry than just her love. Perhaps a guiding shadow of
her former self?

> But I wonder. First of all, there's that reference in "Prisoner of
> Azkaban" to Harry playing musical chairs at a family party, and Aunt
> Marge tripping him with a cane so Dudley could win. But why was Harry
> playing musical chairs? It doesn't square completely with their
> current attitude towards him. Could the Dursleys' treatment of Harry
> have been better in the past? Never loving, of course. But not quite
> child abuse, as it seems to have become? Maltreatment of him would
> have increased as he grew older, as they unconsciously began to
> realize that he was a much better person than their own Dudley (the
> Cinderella complex), and he began to remind them more of his parents.
> Uncle Vernon's crusade against his untidy hair is obviously (to us)
> not a result of any neat-freakness, but of his hate for James Potter.
> Could Harry have picked up any mannerisms(some of these things are
> genetics) from James and Lily? If he's like many kids, his eyes didn't
> start up green. And hair grows darker as one grows up.

I don't think it's so much that he started to look like James as much as
it is that "things" started to happen. Magic would happen
unintentionally. Vernon and Petunia knew exactly what was going on, but
Harry didn't. It could be the over the years, they grew more and more
discouraged that they couldn't get rid of the magic. I don't think they
ever treated him lovingly, but did have to take care of him. Can you
imagine what Petunia must have been thinking while changing Harry's
diaper? 

-Katze