Bang! You're Dead. (was:Voldemorts animus...)

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 86153

Kneazy wrote:

Harry didn't seem to suffer from any moral misgivings when faced with 
Sirius in the Shrieking Shack, so why should he with Voldemort, the 
beast that zapped his parents?

Berit responds:

Well, Harry seemed to suffer some kind of moral misgivings, didn't 
he? Why else would he hesitate in killing Sirius? In CoS p. 251 
(Bloomsbury) we see Harry arguing with himself, trying to justify his 
urge of killing Sirius. He raised his wand, but Harry remained frozen 
in that position. The seconds ticked... The truth is he couldn't 
bring himself to do it. Afterwards Harry is momentarily disappointed 
with himself for "losing his nerve". But why did he lose his nerve? I 
think it's because, fortunately, killing doesn't come easily to a 
normal human being. So yes; Harry hesitating shows he did have moral 
misgivings...

And then we also see Harry actively preventing Lupin and Sirius from 
killing Peter. Reason? He reckoned his dad wouldn't have wanted his 
best friends to become killers just for Peter... Again emphasizing 
what makes killing so ugly: It's not about it being so "bad" to kill 
a baddie, but the problem is more what it does to the person doing 
the killing. Peter wasn't worth Lupin and Sirius becoming killers... 
I find that interesting.

Just a little "sidetracking", but an important one I think :-)

Berit