Could Harry really be an Auror? (Was: Anyone else over PPD?)

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 83310

D wrote:
> I think there will be 10 books total in the series. You've got 7 in 
the "Hogwarts series" and another 3 after that for Auror training. 
<snip>  
I think JKR is setting the ground work to continue even after Harry 
has left Hogwarts. Or maybe this is just wishful thinking on my 
part.>  

Ah, if only (Kirstini, firmly in the Dead!Harry camp, adjusts her 
homemade FEATHERBOA)!
However, this got me thinking. Say Harry does live <chortle>, does 
anyone think he will actually make it into Auror school? It doesn't 
seem likely to me, for several reasons.

1. I don't think his Potions mark will be high enough. 
****
Harry corked his sample flask feeling that he might not have achieved 
a good grade but he had, with luck, avoided a fail. (OoP, Bloomsbury, 
p 632)
****
Surely we aren't going to see Harry bumped up a grade or two because 
he's the famous Harry Potter? Yes, McGonagall has pledged to support 
him, but she has also been particularly scathing about the Ministry's 
corrupt dealings with Willy Widdershins - she's not going to 
encourage the same sort of thing within the education system, is hse? 
Harry has never been talented at Potions - something which was 
perhaps over-emphasised in OoP. Part of it is attributable to Snape's 
overbearing presence, but not all. He doesn't suddenly become an 
expert Potions maker when out of Snape's presence, because (like many 
teenage boys) he lacks subtlety. 
JKR changed the time when OWL results arrive about for a reason - 
suspense? (George and Fred get their results at the end of PoA - 
*before* the end of the term in which they sat them.) 

2.There are other ways of fighting Voldemort/evil.
Neither of Harry's parents were old enough to be fully-fleged Aurors 
(another reason why they weren't at school with the Longbottoms, 
IMHO), and yet had escaped him "three times" by the time Sybil made 
her prediction. Ditto all Marauders and Snape - and yet they were all 
highly active/instrumental in the First War. (Bill and Charlie aren't 
Aurors either, but then they have spy value)  

3. Is it likely that an exhausted 18 year-old, fresh from defeating 
The Most Powerful Dark Wizard For A Century, even one as gung ho as 
Our Young Hero, is going to jump right back on the Dark-beating wagon 
again? It's always been all go for Harry. With the major goal 
completed, I imagine he'd probably want to stop for a break.
<Evil!Kirstini pauses for a moment to note that he'll have plenty of 
time to rest when he's dead, whilst Good!Kirstini ploughs onwards 
with an optimistic smile on her poor, deluded face>

4. We are told that being an Auror was the only career path Harry had 
seriously considered, but this ambition is a comparatively new one, 
and was put into his head by Crouch!Moody in GoF. If Potions are 
essential to Auror training, and Hary is not a particularly talented 
potion-maker, it seems only logical to conclude that he wouldn't be 
successful in this part of the job. Harry is attracted to Auror(ism? 
Aurorship?) because he has formed a rather glamourous (well, as 
glamourous as any job done by Mad-Eye Moody could ever seem)idea of 
what it involves. Let him have a little disappointment - a Cho Chang 
career - before finding out what he really wants to do/ what he's 
really good at. This sort of thing happens a lot to sixteen year olds 
receiving their exam results.

Okay, preparing to duck.
Kirstini.