I *love* tragic endings ! (Was : Re: What if Harry dies?)

[iris_ft]

No: HPFGUIDX 85385

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "susanbones2003" <rdas at f...> 
wrote:
"I never said, as Annemehr pointed out, I needed a happy ending with 
Harry going off into the sunset. I never mentioned how children will 
view this. I merely noted that people care so much for Harry that 
they will be devastated if he dies. And if he must, I hope it's so 
clearly necessary and justified sso that we can all accept it.
Jennifer"

What if Harry dies?  Oh, that's a big question

I've been reading nearly all the posts concerning that thread, and 
in my own mind it's not very clear. It wasn't an easy post to write, 
and I wondered whether I would put it on the board. However, after 
reading Jennifer's message, I decided to send what is following. 
It's rather hard on the Wizarding World, and rather partial, I 
confess. So if I ever hurt the members who see it as an ideal 
society, if I'm clumsy, I apologize. It's not very easy to talk 
about death, even in the case of an imaginary boy.

Harry
 Dead or alive at the end of the story? 
On one hand, I would try to accept it if he died, though I would be 
sad .He makes me cry when he's in a hard situation, for example at 
the end of OotP; I don't think I will laugh if he doesn't survive. 
In order to have "a well prepared mind" concerning his potential 
death, I use to think that if Harry died, he would join some other 
characters that I love (Hamlet, Don Juan, Don Quijote, Frodo
), and 
he would share with them the respect we tend to owe to dead heroes. 
I would keep on reading the series, just the same way I keep on 
reading Shakespeare, Tirso de Molina or Molière's plays, Cervantes 
and Tolkien's novels: because they are much more than combinations 
of stories and characters. There's also the way the artists wrote 
them, there's what we could call "the work of art miracle", that 
repeats indefinitely. Thanks to this "miracle", we know that we can 
leave Frodo, Don Juan, Don Quijote or Hamlet go, just because we 
also know that we'll meet them again. True heroes never vanish 
completely; we can bring them back every time we need them. We know 
we can shut the books; we can open them another time and the magic 
of verb will go on. It will be the same with Harry, who already 
belongs to legend.

On the other hand, I would be glad if I could shut the book 
saying "He did it, he survived".
However, I'm not sure this ending would be as satisfying to him as 
we could imagine. 
First, as Joseph Campbell wrote, it's difficult to a hero to find 
his own place in the world he saved. Actually, he is not in the same 
world anymore, because the initiation he went through put him in 
another dimension. When Harry defeats Voldemort, he will be 
definitely different from his friends and from the other wizards. 
How will he live among people who will treat him like a phenomenon? 
Who will always demand perfection from him? His closest friends (if 
they survive
) will certainly treat him "normally", but the others 
won't. He will have very few rights ( right to weakness, to 
mistake
) and a lot of duties. Any example? Look at what happens in 
the first book when he makes Gryffindor loose points: his mates from 
the Quidditch Team don' call him by his name anymore. He's only "the 
seeker", just as if he didn't deserve the name "Harry Potter" 
anymore. He doesn't fit with the representation the others had of 
him, he is not as he must be, and he has to cope with their grief. 
The Wizarding World doesn't want Harry to betray his own legend 
while he's only a child. It will be worse when he manages to defeat 
completely Voldemort. He will have to be a model, or a symbol; he 
will not be allowed to be "just Harry". That's for the first option.

And there's another option that makes me wonder whether he will be 
happy in the world he will have saved: it's a world with a very 
short memory. Look at what happens to Dumbledore: he's not as 
popular as he should be. He defeated Grindelwald. He's "the only one 
Voldemort ever feared". Do wizards treat him well for all that? Not 
precisely. Some say he's a nutter, some say he's too old, or think 
he would be able to take the power. They don't trust him; it appears 
clearly in the fifth book. At the end of OotP, of course, he's given 
back his credit, but only because the others fear Voldemort. Now 
they want him to save the day and are ready to treat him 
obsequiously. I bet that they will do the same with Harry after 
Voldemort's defeat. He will only have the right to help them if they 
need him, and shut up the rest of the time.

Yes, it's a world with a very short memory. If it wasn't, Voldemort 
wouldn't be there.
But they forgot how it was in Grindelwald's time; they didn't want 
to recognize their responsibility in the existence of Dark Magic. 
And so it went on when Voldemort appeared. 
They didn't even try to change their rules when Harry defeated him 
once. They kept on tolerating verbal and social discrimination (no 
matter if the pure bloods use such an unacceptable expression 
as "mud blood"; no matter if Lupin can't find a job because of his 
disease; no matter if the newspaper wipes the ground with Hagrid 
because he's half giant; no matter if houses elves are slaves
) They 
didn't modify their justice (Hagrid went to Azkaban only because 
they suspected him of being responsible for what was happening at 
Hogwarts; they denied him a trial, just as they did with Sirius). 
They kept on encouraging rivalry in their schools (the Four Houses 
Cup tradition, the Triwizard Tournament
). To cut a long story 
short, they didn't take the opportunity to close the door to Dark 
Magic, to cut off all that makes it possible (discrimination, 
injustice, hatred
), maybe because they didn't want to put their 
society into question.
They needed to consider the reasons why Voldemort had become so 
powerful, and act in such a way it wouldn't happen anymore, but they 
didn't do anything. It was in their power to make things change, but 
they didn't move at all. They were happy with that small child who 
had defeated the Dark Lord, and with Dumbledore who was still there, 
just in case. 
                                                                     
 "Everything is for the best I the best of the worlds", as Voltaire 
wrote ironically. Wizards probably didn't want to see that evil is 
never very far, even from normality, and that not speaking its name 
is not enough to keep it away. 
Now, Voldemort is back. They expect Dumbledore to protect them, and 
if he dies, they will certainly expect Harry to save the day. 
Shouldn't they first ask themselves what they can do, instead of 
waiting and fearing like children? And who will face the next Dark 
Lord (a job for Draco?) after Harry? For they can be sure there will 
be another one, if they stay on the same road
 
I recognize that I'm not very kind with the Wizarding World tonight, 
and some could say that I'm not very fair either. I'd like to say 
that JKR herself isn't very kind with the WW. I was re-
reading "Fantastic Beasts and where to find them" before writing 
this post, and it's clear that she criticises the incredibly slow 
way wizard use to make legislation: they started trying to define 
which creatures had the right to be "citizens" of the Wizarding 
World in the 14th century, and they didn't manage to find a more or 
less acceptable solution until 1811. 
                                                                     
"Chi va piano va sano?". Maybe, but meanwhile, Voldemort and C° are 
free to say and  to do what they 
want.                                                                
                                                                  
And as a conclusion, I confess: Harry is my pet, and I would feel 
disgusted if he died but people like Fudge could keep on ruling the 
Wizarding World. It would mean that his sacrifice would have been in 
vain, that the story would repeat, with other Dark Lords and other 
sacrifices, just because the Wizarding World didn't draw a lesson 
from what happened.
                                                                
Harry has to grow up spiritually; he has to learn, to improve, and 
to overpass his own errors. Why should he be the only one in the 
Wizarding World? And would the Wizarding World deserve Harry's 
sacrifice, if it didn't change anything at all?

Amicalement,

Iris