Harry's Power

[ellejir]

No: HPFGUIDX 78431

Doriane wrote:
> 
> <snip long, thoughtful post regarding Harry's "special power" and 
> her reasoning why that power is *hope* and not *love*>

> - 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.
> <more snipping>
> 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.
> 

Me:
Your idea is very interesting, but I'm not sure that I would agree 
that Voldemort is without hope (although *his* idea of 
things "turning out all right in the end" is certainly very different 
from ours or Harry's.)  *Something* sustained Voldemort during all 
those years when he was half dead and without a body of his own.  In 
fact, if I am not mistaken, at the end of GoF he uses the word "hope" 
himself in the graveyard scene when describing what happened after 
Harry defeated him over the Sorcerer's stone and he had to abandon 
Quirrel's body ("I confess, I almost lost hope"--or something to that 
effect, I don't have the book right here at work.)

I tend to think that Harry's power is love, in the sense of 
*compassion*.  The scene in which he offers to help Luna find her 
lost belongings--with his own grief over Sirius still so raw--
demonstrates Harry's great ability to feel for others.  He even feels 
compassion for *Snape* after seeing the scene in the pensieve.  I do 
not think that Voldemort has one drop of compassion or empathy for 
others.  He sneers at his own DE's, at Harry, at Ginny and at his own 
mother and father.  

Doriane again:
> <more snipping>
> it is a power more wonderful and more terrible than death:
> love is more wonderful than death, all right, but more terrible ??
> 

Me:
Love can be "more terrible than death" in the sense of the pain it 
can cause when a loved one suffers or is lost.  Many people would 
rather die themselves than have a child or beloved spouse die.  The 
pain that Harry is feeling at the end of OoP is due to love of Sirius 
and that loss, not loss of hope.  
I certainly agree that loss of hope is a terrible thing as well.

Elle 






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's a mysterious power
> 
> 
> - 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. 
> 
> 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