Harry's Power

[Shirley]

No: HPFGUIDX 78289

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Doriane" <delwynmarch at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> 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

Now Shirley:
Excellent, *excellent* post!!  I have been thinking along the same 
lines, but could never have worded it so well or argued it so 
convincingly.  I have, in turn, considered the power to be faith, 
hope or love (yes, very Corinthians of me), but concluded it to be 
hope.  So, no flames from here ;)