Moody (was: Please pass the tissues)

[D.G.]

No: HPFGUIDX 69805

Wendy wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>"Yeah, well," said Moody, "there's something funny about the Potter 
> kid, we all know that."

When Moody calls him "the Potter kid," that just seems so
cold to me...
<<<<<<<<<

At risk of sounding as if I'm trying to set up a Pro/Anti-Moody 
battle along the lines of the Snape battle that's currently raging -- 
I like the old guy!  I think he's as grizzled and scarred inside as 
he is outside --hardened (his face looks like "wood," remember?) by 
what he's seen, had done to him, and had to do himself-- and he looks 
at all of life from that perspective.  The world he lives in (or at 
least the world as he's come to live in it) is so fraught with peril, 
danger, and distrust, that one simply cannot afford to soften, to let 
one's guard down, to allow oneself to get too close to anyone, to 
feel to compassionate.  (Not to stray too far afield, but in some 
ways this hints at the symptoms of PSTD --post-traumatic stress 
disorder.)

Which is a pity, because I sense that within Moody --just as within a 
grizzled old soldier or trail-toughened old  cowboy-- there beats a 
tender heart.  

"D.G."