[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry's importance and threats of expulsion

[Troels Forchhammer]

No: HPFGUIDX 57219

At 13:40 07-05-03 +0000, Ersatz Harry wrote:
>giving the word to spare Pettigrew's life.
[...]
>Nonetheless, this particular act strikes me as the
>Right Thing to Have Done.

Harry /does/ usually do the Right(TM) thing.
In Rowling's words:

     "I have to be careful what I say. Erm ... Harry is someone is
      forced for such a young person to make his own choices. He
      has very limited access to truly caring adults - and he /is/
      guided by his conscience. Now, Harry makes mistakes,
      repeatedly, erm Harry ha- ... did things like ... he did -
      he did steal the flying car, that was a very stupid thing to
      do, he - but it seemed like a great idea at the time, we've
      all been there - er - but ultimately Harry is guided by his
      conscience. He is flanked by two friends, they work far
      better as a team than apart, though Harry tends to be the
      one who has to shoulder the most of the burden - he is the
      true hero in that sense, Hermione, who is really the brain
      of the outfit, and Ron, who is also a very brave character,
      I mean, I deeply admire bravery in all forms, and that's why
      ... in book one, if - if people have read book one they'll
      remember that Neville Longbottom, who is a - who is a comic,
      but I - he's not a tr- wholly comic figure to me, Neville is
      actually quite a tragic figure to me as well because there's
      a lot of Neville in me - this feeling of just never being
      quite good enough -- I mean I - we've all felt that at some
      point, and I felt that /a lot/ when I was younger, and I
      wanted to show Neville doing something brave - it's not as
      spectacularly brave as Harry and Hermione do, but he - he
      finds true moral courage in standing up to his closest
      friends - the people who are on his side, but he still
      thinks they are doing wrong and he tells them so - so that's
      a very important moment for me too in the first book."

http://www.hogwarts-library.net/reference/interviews/19991012_TheConnection.html#part18

I think I'll just let that speak for itself, conscience, moral
courage, mistakes and all

>As far as Harry's being captain of the Quidditch team goes, this
>doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Well - as it does to me, I'll just pipe in here as well ;-)

Harry is definitely the leader of the trio, and I think that he
will find himself assuming more responsibility as a leading figure
in the fight against Voldemort - I believe that he is being groomed
to replace Dumbledore as the leader of the opposition against
Voldemort. As such he needs to improve his leadership talent and
the position as Quidditch captain would help him do that far better
than a position as prefect of Head Boy.

>For one, he doesn't seem to have the discipline to get the team
>to practice, etc. For two, he doesn't act much as a leader in general;

I disagree with both here - Harry is the undisputed leader of the
trio, and he has a natural talent for inspiring and motivating
others that will be extremely helpful for him should he become
captain of the Quidditch team.
Speaking as a scout leader, I'd have to say that Harry is a very
obvious choice for patrol leader.

>For three, even his role on the team is a solitary one, and I assume
>the position title of Seeker is meant to be a bit metaphorical as well.
>Seeker as Captain?  Seems unlikely; they are two very different types
>of people.

Cedric Diggory!

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