Child abuse question (minus spoiler)

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 65577

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ccm50_2000" <ccm at t...> wrote:
> I'm new to this group and after a search of the archive, couldn't 
> find that this topic had already been discussed. If it has, I 
> apologize for the repetition. I know that Harry is supposed to be
> an exceptional person, but how could any child turn out to be 
> psychologically normal after a lifetime of such vicious abuse by
> the Dursleys? I've heard a child can overcome terrible abuse if 
> he/she has one person to turn to who cares, but Harry didn't have
> anyone. Not a neighbor, teacher, clergy, friend or friend's parent. 

I think Lily was able, with her magic, to put an image of herself in 
her baby's mind, that would be like an 'imaginary mum' (by analogy 
with 'imaginary friend') who would cuddle Harry and tell him that 
he's a good kid who doesn't deserve Dursley abuse and tell him about 
how decent people behave, thus being that one caring adult said to be 
necessary to even a 'resilient' child's survival of serious abuse... 
I kind of think Lily used her last magic to put this image in his 
head intentionally, instead of using her last magic in one last 
attempt to escape Voldemort. That is the heroic self-sacrifce that 
canon credits her, accepting her own death because it was more 
important to her to give this protection (from abusive Dursleys) of 
her love. I don't know why she would do that if she really believed 
that he would be dead seconds after she was, so I am left sympathetic 
to the theories that Harry survived AK because of some magic that had 
been done on him (presumably by Lily) or that he had been born with. 

When Harry resisted the Imperius Curse, the Curse's Moody-voice in 
his head told him to jump up on the desk, and "another voice had 
awoken in the back of his brain. Stupid thing to do, really, said the 
voice." I believe that that other voice is what's left of the 
image-Lily after all these years; she doesn't appear often, she 
appears as Harry's voice instead of her own, but she still is caring 
for Harry -- and still has free will.

In addition, so far we've always seen Harry wondering and trying to 
find out about his father, and not about his mother. Some say that's 
a plot device because JKR is saving some big surprise about Lily, and 
some say it's normal because Harry is 11 to 15 so far, puberty and 
adolescence, and much more concerned about a male image to identify 
with. But *I* say that he doesn't search so much for Lily because, 
unknown to himself, he already has her with him.