Harry nice kid / Harry & Cho

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

No: HPFGUIDX 33065

Lilah P[otter?] wrote:

> Do you think maybe Dumbledore put some sort of spell on him so that 
> he wouldn't be so tramatized, and that was why he felt ultimately 
> comfortable with placing Harry with those wretched people?
> Otherwise, I feel that Dumbledore is very close to being an 
> accessory to child abuse.

I don't think *Dumbledore* put an emotional-protection spell on baby 
Harry: I think *LILY* did. This is one of the things I keep saying so 
that everyone gets bored with me: Lily stayed there for Voldemort to 
kill her instead of Apparating away (leaving Harry behind) or ducking 
(with magical assistance) out of the way of the Avada Kevadra. One 
reason was that she was shielding baby Harry with her body, but I 
think another reason was that she was using those last moments and 
all her magic power to put a magic image of herself in baby Harry's 
mind. Which he now perceives as kind of an 'imaginary mum' like an 
'imaginary friend'. But it's more than imaginary: it has real 
Lilyness in it, some of her magic power, some of her love for Harry, 
some of her ethics, etc. So he spent childhood years in that cupboard 
with shadow-Lily to hug him and tell him he a good kid, that he 
doesn't deserve the way the Dursleys treat him, tell him about how 
decent people would behave... And when he resists the Imperius Curse 
in fake-Moody's class, it says "a voice in his head" told him not to 
obey the command: I think that voice was shadow-Lily!

Either Dumbledore didn't realize just how bad the Dursleys were, and 
didn't check up on them over the years, or he WAS an accessory to 
child abuse. Dumbledore is not all-knowing: he was deceived by 
fake-Moody for a whole school year, so he could have been wrong about 
the Dursleys. On the other hand, he made have known that they would 
mistreat Harry and try to beat the magic out of him, and calculated 
that that upbringing would give Harry character traits (independent, 
lonely, self-reliant, untrusting, humble, thirsty to prove himself, 
ignorant of wizarding world) that he would need to carry out his 
destiny.

Mary Bear wrote:

> It beats me why Dumbledore feels that living with the Dursleys
> would be the best thing for Harry, unless it has something to do
> with security from Voldemort and his followers,

Supposedly there is some 'ancient magic' that will keep Harry safe 
while he is with his relatives, and Dumbledore told McGonagall in the 
very first chapter that 'they are the only family he has left'. I 
theorize that Harry is protected for a certain period of time 
after each stay with his relatives, so he can be left temporarily 
with Mrs. Figg in childhood, and can go stay at the Burrow AFTER he 
begins the summer holiday with the Dursleys.

> his similarity to his father, ironically made following many of his
> choices. This seems to point us squarely back to genetics.  

Per above, **I** think it's magic rather than genetics, and his 
*mother* rather than his father. I think he thinks and wonders so 
much about his father and not about his mother because he's already 
known his mother for years, through that mental imprint.

Red XIV wrote:

> His feelings are nothing more than a crush on a girl he doesn't
> even know, based entirely on her physical attractiveness. By the 
> time she's gotten past her grief & he's gotten past his guilt, I 
> don't think he'll be interested in her anymore.

There is canon evidence that Cho is a really nice kid. She didn't 
wear a Potter Stinks badge even tho' it also said Support Cedric 
Diggory. She was very gentle about rejecting Harry's invitation to 
the Ball. Thus, he would like her even better once he did get to know 
her. Which I believe could perfectly well happen. If events threw them 
together, they could soon develop a non-romantic a-sexual friendship 
that starting with trying to comfort each other's grief over Cedric 
and continued on by commiserating on the difficulties of living in 
both Muggle and wizarding worlds, and of playing Seeker against 
Malfoy... They could eventually find their friendship turning into 
something more... late in sixth year, I should think...