Sins of his parents?

[Claire]

No: HPFGUIDX 70666

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "tiger_queen429" 
<tiger_queen429 at y...> wrote:
> IMO, I see Harry as suffering from being judged as his parents. 
> Everyone who knew his parents compared him to them especially with 
> how much he looked like James and has Lily's eyes.Petunia and 
Snape 
> in particular compare him to his parents in ways that have nothing 
to 
> do with his appearence.

Me:
I do agree.  Any child who has been compared to an older sibling by 
a teacher knows how this feels.  In this case, Harry has far loftier 
heroes to live up to, at least in the eyes of most of the people 
around him.  I think McGonagall is an exception; she never compares 
Harry to his parents.  I believe it's because she is far more 
pragmatic than anyone else and is also too clever to fall into that 
trap.

> Petunia took Harry in I think because he is her sister's son. 
Though 
> Petunia may not have liked Lily, she deep down probally loved her. 
> And this love for her only family left made her take Harry. At the 
> same time Petunia probally felt resentful of the special treatment 
> Lily recieved by their parents. Thus this explains why she and 
Vernon 
> treated Harry so badly. For some, raising a child that is not your 
> own can be very difficult, especially one that you did not want or 
> expect. While I do think Harry's treatment by the Dursleys is over 
> the top, I feel that the emotions behind the treatment are sound. 
I 
> would have found it more believible if Harry always had the second 
> bedroom, but never recieved any gifts and was tormented by Dudley, 
> but still had one or two friends.

Me:
The Dursleys are almost cartoonishly outlandish in their treatment 
of Harry.  I do think, though, that Petunia does have feelings for 
Harry based on her relationship with her sister.  Love and hate can 
be two sides of the same hand.  I've always thought she protested 
too much during the outburst in the hut on the sea in PS/SS.

> With Snape, every time he sees Harry; he sees James, his bully 
back 
> when he was a student at Hogwarts. Though he can't do anything to 
> James now, he can take out some of his anger towards James out on 
> Harry. I personally think that Snape is a good teacher of potion, 
his 
> difficult manner in teaching the class will no doubt help most 
people 
> do well in their OWL's and NEWT's. Even Harry does well on his 
> Potions OWL because he knows what he is doing thanks to Snape. 
Though 
> I don't doubt that for most people potions may be a hard class, 
but 
> something they will all do reasonable well in. Snape in my opinion 
is 
> overly critical of Harry both in and out of class. Harry very 
rarely 
> breaks rules unless he has to the duel with Malfoy and sneaking 
into 
> Hogsmeade being the two major exceptions to this pattern, but 
Snape 
> is always going on about how Harry constanly breaks rules and 
such. 
> James may have done pretty much what he wanted without regard for 
the 
> rules, but Harry is not James.

Me:
Someone else, in a post of Snape's treatment of Harry, said he is 
only the most awful to students who have potential (I'm paraphrasing 
here).  While I'm not a Snape apologist, he has done things to save 
Harry's life.  I trust Dumbledore's trust of Snape--Dumbledore 
rarely does anything rashly and without reason.  Snape's 
belittlement of Harry, based, it seems, solely on the fact he's his 
father's son seems to be in Harry's POV.  With JKR, you almost need 
to read between the lines.

> Sirius too, i think place too much comparison on Harry with 
regards 
> to James. Harry would never just attack someone without reason 
like 
> James or do something really dangerous for kicks.
> Harry in my opinion is seen too much as his parents, but not 
enough 
> as his own person.
> 
Me:
It's only the adults who place the emphasis on Harry's parents.  His 
peers would not have signed up for DADA classes simply because of 
his parents, but because of what Harry had proven to be adept at 
doing.

Claire