[HPforGrownups] What was gained in OoP?

[the firey chasm from whence it came]

No: HPFGUIDX 65915


><snip, snip, snip>

>Now in OoP, Harry will to play the hero has gained him nothing but
>the death of a beloved godfather. In the other book he does something
>smart and ends up helping people. in the fifth book his reason for
>failing, and being tricked by Voldemort, was his stubborness for not
>wanting to study occlumency. Because of mistake, he was lured into the
>Ministry of Magic and then tries to bail himself out by saving the
>prophecy. He "saves" the prophecy from Voldemort, who would have
>gained nothing from it either way. I think this book is a major
>letdown from the Harry we once knew. It seems Hermione was right and
>he just wanted to play the hero.

I think that's part of the point of OOTP. He has a lot to learn from his 
most recent experiences. He has to learn to deal with the loss of Sirius, 
how to deal better with girls, how to control his emotions better, how to 
be less impulsive and rash, and to accept that even good people have flaws. 
This is a book where he gets disappointed and let down a lot, but I think 
that's on purpose. He's growing up. DD is revealed to be fallible, his 
father was an arrogant jerk as a teenager, etc, etc. He has to learn that 
he's not always right about everything. Hopefully in future books he'll 
come more to terms with the role he played in Sirius' death and learn what 
he needs to from it: not to be so rash or to be quite so cock-sure of 
himself in the future.

~dream