[HPforGrownups] Re: OoP: The Weapon/Sirius/Bullying

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 62915

I've been reading a lot of speculation about what the weapon actually is,
why they would call a prophecy a weapon etc etc. Now I don't have the book
to hand but as far as i can recall the kids are never actually told about
the weapon. They overhear about it and one of them mentions it to one of the
Order (Arthur?) but nothing is confirmed or denied. So I have to wonder
whether the Weapon and the prophecy are actually the same thing. The kids
overhear that they are guarding a weapon - well wht other than the prophecy
do we know that they are guarding? Harry Potter. And what is, apparently,
the only thing that can kill LV? Harry Potter.

Is it possible that the weapon isn't the prophecy, which they are guarding
simply because the less information LV has the better, but Harry himself. It
fits with the way a lot of them treat him ('the Potter Boy' comes to mind).
The WW in general don't treat Harry as a child but rather as a way of
defeating Voldemort. frankly other than the Weasleys, Hermione, and probably
Remus, the WW couldn't care less what happens to Harry as long as he takes
LV down with him. That IMO is the true tragedy of Sirius' death, Harry has
lost one of the tiny minority of grown-ups who love him for him not for his
possible powers (although admittedly part of his love for the boy is because
he's part of James)

If Sirius had been cleared and Harry had been spending time with him, he
probably wouldn't have been living with him because of needing to callthe
Dursley house home, then I could understand why it was necessary to get rid
of Sirius. Harry needs to stop trying to be James and just concentrate on
being Harry - but with him spending so little time with Sirius I can't see
that Sirius was having that effect on him. And actually after what he saw in
Severus' pensieve I'm not sure even Sirius could mold him into being James.

There has been a lot of discussion about why James and co bullied Severus
(which thye certainly seem to have done). Now i think a large part of it
derived simply from the fact that they were rich (or at least some of them
were), popular (on the quidditch team), good looking teenagers and Sev
certainly wasn't the latter two and we don't know about the first one, and
for a 15 year old boy often the fact that you *can* bully someone is all the
reason you need. But I wonder if some of it derives from the fact that
Voldemort was already coming to power. James et al are Gryffindors and
therefore the traditional enemies of the Slytherins anyway. The Slytherins
would have been distrusted and disliked at this point if the current level
of anti-Slytherin feeling in the WW is anything to go by. So they would have
been looking for a target and the fact that Severus was a bit of a loner
would have made him a fairly easy target, add in his views on muggleborns
(and whether they are his ctual view or whether he is adopting them just to
ingratiate himself with his housemates is irrelevent here) and the boys
would have felt 'justified' in his actions. I think this explains the 'he
exists' comment - they are bullying him because he is (in their eyes) an
evil, mudblood-hating, Slytherin rather than because of anything he
personally has done.

K