Sirius' death and the power of love

[Ernie Prang]

No: HPFGUIDX 82301

Several of the ideas in this post have been put forward by others, 
particularly Terry LJ and Hans, but I haven't quite seen them put together 
in the way I am suggesting here.  If someone else has essentially said what 
is in this post, please let me know.

This post combines the following themes:

- the 'locked room', presumed to be love, and the power of love;
- the meaninglessness of Sirius' death;
- that it is our choices that are of supreme importance;
- the uniqueness of Harry;
- the idea that there is a Christian theme in the Harry Potter books.

My starting point is the abrupt and random way in which Sirius is dismissed 
from the stage, quite literally.  His death seems so *unnecessary*, doesn't 
it, and this is what, I believe, has so distressed fans.  It seems as if JKR 
has gone out of her way to create maximum anguish for Harry, and maximum 
dissonance for readers who are used to getting a measure of reader 
satisfaction from the justice of outcomes in fiction.  Sirius makes litttle 
material difference to the battle in the Ministry; by the time he is killed, 
Dumbledore is on the scene and rapidly taking control; all the time Harry 
had the mirror, use of which could have prevented the whole episode; the 
last few months of Sirius' life, far from being a blaze of glory fitting for 
a departing hero, are a supreme anti-climax; towards the end much of the 
shine of his character has been eclipsed by the Pensieve scene, and he does 
almost nothing to redeem himself when asked by Harry about it.   Even 
Harry's love for Sirius is called into question: not its reality, but its 
effect, because it is his overwhelming emotional response to Sirius that 
provides an opening for Voldemort to trick him.

The counterpoint to all this is the scene just a few pages later when 
Voldemort possesses Harry and tries to get Dumbledore to kill him.

I'll quote:

"Let the pain stop, thought Harry ... let him kill us ... end it, Dumbledore 
... death is nothing compared to this ...

And I'll see Sirius again ...

And as Harry's heart filled with emotion, the creature's coils loosened, the 
pain was gone; Harry was lying face down on the floor, his glasses gone, 
shivering as though he lay upon ice, not wood ..."

I believe this passage is the heart of OOP.  I understand it thus.  Harry is 
in the grip of Voldemort, who controls his behaviour, who is seeking to end 
his life.  Dumbledore at this point can do nothing (he "sounds frightened" a 
few lines earlier, anticipating Voldmort's move on Harry).  All Harry 
himself wants is to die, the experience is so horrible.

What saves him is his memory of Sirius, and specifically the knowledge that 
he will see Sirius again.  His desire to see Sirius again is what Voldemort 
cannot stand, and he has to leave.  Now, it's hard to know one way or the 
other, but I believe what makes this so powerful is that Sirius has just 
sacrificed his life on Harry's behalf: we have canon precedent for this in 
Lily's death.  However, we have an ingredient impossible in the case of baby 
Harry: Harry's conscious knowledge and acceptance of Sirius' death.  It 
seems to be this moment of consciousness, not the objective fact of Sirius' 
death, that defeats Voldemort.  Notice that it is *acceptance*.  Harry, like 
many of his fans, finds it hard to accept that Sirius has really died.  The 
rest of the book is about his struggle against accepting it.  But, in his 
moment of crisis, what saves him is his assurance that, if he dies, he will 
be better off - much better off - because he will see Sirius again.

I think this links with the themes of love and choice.  Harry is loved by 
Sirius, loved to the death.  And Harry chooses, admittedly unconsciously, to 
accept that and see the good in it, even the benefit for himself.  And 
that's what saves him.

So now Sirius' death does have meaning, because Harry chooses to make it so.

Listen to Dumbledore:

"'There is a room in the department of Mysteries,' interrupted Dumbledore, 
'that is kept locked at all times.  It contains a force that is at once more 
wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the 
forces of nature.  It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many 
subjects for study that reside there.  It is the power held within that room 
that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all.  
That power took you to save Sirius tonight.  That power also saved you from 
possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so 
full of the force he detests.  In the end it mattered not that you could not 
close your mind.  It was your heart that saved you.'"

He points to the moment when Harry throws off Voldemort as being critical.  
He emphasises the interplay between Harry's active attempt to save Sirius - 
and, possibly, by dignifying his exit, Harry *did* save Sirius - and his 
passive being saved from Voldemort.

I'm going to go out on a religious limb here.  I think this is Christian 
stuff.  And central, heart-of-the-faith, irreducible-core Christian stuff.  
Harry, accepting the love of someone who has died on his behalf, and 
recognising that death is nothing, is saved from his lifelong serpentine 
('coils') enemy.  And see how, at the moment of his passage through the 
arch, JKR designates Sirius as Harry's godfather, the one who takes 
responsibility before God when birth parents are absent.

I don't believe it makes any sense to try to construct a close set of 
parallels: Sirius = Christ, Voldemort = the devil, Harry = everyman, and 
then pursue that through the rest of the series.  It's a picture for this 
book, and in the later books we may see the characters change roles.  (How 
about Voldemort = everyman, and Harry = Christ?)  But I do think this is the 
first real evidence to say that Jo Rowling is an author in the tradition of 
the Inklings.  This is not just manipulation of symbols, or allusions to 
Christian tradition.  This is theological, IMO.

In summary:

- it is the power of love, when one is loved, not when one loves, that is 
redemptive;
- Sirius death is made meaningful, indeed effective, because Harry *chooses* 
to embrace it as sacrifice;
- Harry's unique power stems from the uniqueness of the affection lavished 
upon him;
- these are, IMO, Christian themes.

Ernie Prang, driving the Knight Bus for thirty months

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