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

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 83336



Kristini:
> 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.

For the record, I (tentatively) *don't* believe that Harry will become 
an Auror.  However, I believe that this will be a personal decision, 
rather than the result of a bad Potions grade.

Also, what's so funny about The Boy Who Lived...well, *living*? ^_~ 
Actually, I'm way too unsure about this subject to even offer an 
opinion.  Honestly, I could see JKR taking it either way and, of 
course, making it work beautifully.


> 1. I don't think his Potions mark will be high enough.

I don't know if I want to deny this flat out, but I will say that I can 
definitely see JKR doing what she did with DADA in OotP.  Namely, that 
we suddenly find out that Harry was much better at the subject than 
he/we suspected.  Now, I'm not saying that Harry might suddenly become 
a Potions prodigy (heh, alliteration!).  However, given Snape's 
*loathing* for Our Dear Hero, I think it's plausible that he (and, 
therefore, us) have been led to believe that he's much worse at it than 
he really is.

On the other hand, you may be exactly right. ^_~

>
>
> 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.

I think there are two main schools of thought on this topic, the first 
being yours (that Harry will have spent the majority of his life 
fighting Voldemort and will, understandably, be sick of it by the time 
he's out of Hogwarts).

The second is that fighting the Dark Side is an integral part of 
*Harry*.  As Hermione put it, he *does* have that saving people thing.  
Whether he wants to rest or not, can you really see Harry and his hero 
complex sitting back and, say, playing Quidditch for England when 
there's Evil to be fought and innocent lives to be saved?  A hero is 
what Harry *is* (as much as he may protest it), not some sort of day 
job he can quit when he feels like it.

Truth be told, I'm not really sure which camp I'm in on this one.  They 
both seem perfectly reasonable outcomes.

HOWEVER...

> 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)

I really don't think Harry will end up an Auror, because there *are* 
other ways of fighting evil that seem more his style, *and*...

> 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.

I just think it's unlikely that Harry will have decided on the final 
course for the rest of his life at the age of 14, based on the 
suggestion of an evil professor impostor.


> 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.

Fighting Evil *is* what Harry's really good at, as witnessed (among 
other things) by his proficiency at DADA (which, I point out again, he 
had no idea he had, until OotP).  I think Aurors simply need to be good 
at *all* types of magic (makes sense, when you think about it), and I 
don't think their Potions requirement is anything Harry couldn't pass 
with a bit of effort.

Another thing it seems that Harry is good at is, of course, teaching.  
I'm sort of disappointed that JKR has ruled out that job possibility of 
him (you'll have to take my word on that one, sorry.  I'm too lazy to 
look up the interview that it was in).  It seems like teaching DADA at 
Hogwarts would be ideal for him - esp. as Hogwarts seems pretty much 
the headquarters of the Good Guys when the going gets rough, so he'd 
still be in the thick of things, fighting-evil-wise.

Laura (who thinks this must be the most indecisive post she's ever 
written)