Harry's Power

[Doriane]

No: HPFGUIDX 78269


I've been thinking about it right from the moment I read DD's 
explanation of Harry's "special power" :

OoP, chapter 37 :

'There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked 
at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and 
more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of 
nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects 
for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room 
that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at 
all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also 
saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to 
reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it 
mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart 
that saved you.'

Can you see how the word "love", or anything else for that matter, is 
not mentioned a single time ? Knowing JKR the way we know her, that 
should signal "Beware ! Trap !" We all think of love right away, and 
I think this is *precisely* what she *wants* us to think of ! But she 
never ever mentions it. So I think that power is not love at all.

Let's see :

-it's a power that is so special that the room where it is studied 
has to be locked at all times : why would anyone want to keep people 
out of the Love room ? In my idea, it should even be a room where 
everyone should be made to go once in a while : it would make the 
world a much nicer place :-)

- it is a power more wonderful and more terrible than death : love is 
more wonderful than death, all right, but more terrible ??

- it's a mysterious power

- Harry possesses lots of that power, and Voldemort none : I agree 
that Voldemort doesn't love, but I don't see Harry as being so full 
of love. He's full of many emotions, but love doesn't strike me as 
one of the most prominent ones.

- it's the power that took Harry to save Sirius : it isn't love in 
itself that made Harry go to the MoM, but his desire to help him, his 
hope to save him.

- it's a power Voldemort detests so much he can't reside in a body 
full of it : Voldemort doesn't hate love. He doesn't understand it, 
he despises it, but he doesn't hate it. 

So what could that power be ? I'm not sure, but one possibility would 
be Hope. Not just hope that I'll get rich tomorrow, but Hope that 
things will turn out all right in the end. A Hope bordering on Faith, 
to use a Christian terminology.

You see :

-it's a power that is so special that the room where it is studied 
has to be locked at all times : remember what happens to people when 
they are faced with the Mirror of Erised ? They get fascinated by it. 
Some even waste their whole life away looking into it. I think it 
would be the same with a Hope room : people would get trapped into 
it, because they would feel so much hope in it, that the outside 
world would seem unbearably desperate to them.

- it is a power more wonderful and more terrible than death : because 
he's got this hope of seeing Sirius again when he dies, Harry is 
ready to sacrifice himself to kill Voldemort. As such, it is more 
wonderful than death. But for other people who hope for what they 
can't ever obtain, it is more terrible than death, but it makes them 
live an excruciating nightmare every single day of their lives.

- it's a mysterious power : why do many people hope for things when 
everything seems to tell them those things will never come true, that 
is a mystery indeed.

- Harry possesses lots of that power, and Voldemort none : Harry 
always had a lot of hope, he keeps thinking he can get out of the 
trickiest and deadliest situations and that something will happen to 
turn a desperate situation around. That's why he's always trying, 
always acting, because he's got this hope that in the end things will 
turn out right if he gives his best. But LV doesn't have any Hope. 
He's got small desires, for sure, but no real hope for anything. He 
wants what he knows he can obtain, but he doesn't have any hope for a 
better life.

- it's the power that took Harry to save Sirius : as I already said, 
it was his hope to save Sirius that took Harry all the way to the 
MoM. He kept hoping against reason that Sirius was still alive and 
that he, Harry, would somehow free him from Voldemort.

- it's a power Voldemort detests so much he can't reside in a body 
full of it : it was the joy Harry felt at the idea of seeing Sirius 
again that kicked LV out of Harry's body. And that joy came from that 
deep hope that Harry nurtured, that the people who go through the 
veil are still alive somewhere somehow. Moreover, Hope is the worst 
enemy of any tyrant : as long as people keep hoping that things can 
get better, they can't be crushed. They can be isolated, tortured, or 
whatever, as long as they have hope, they keep fighting. So for 
someone like Voldemort, Hope would be the worst feeling people can 
feel, because it keeps them fighting against him, no matter how 
powerful he gets.

So what do you think ? Am I completely off-track or what ? Shoot 
away !

Del