Harry and the next great adventure, was Re: Percy Ignatius Weasley

[Ali]

No: HPFGUIDX 83560

> The Sergeant Majorette says
<Snip>
> The wizarding wardrobe, with its long medieval robes. It never
> occurred to me before, but maybe this is one of JKR's references
> [to the Jesuits]. (Yeah, and the schools with the black-robed
> teachers and the repressed sexuality -- if that doesn't make me
> feel 40 years younger!)

Pip!Squeak:

Except black gowned teachers and repressed sexuality could be
any 'good' UK school up to about 1980. Teachers in the UK 'top'
schools would wear a black academic gown over their clothes when
teaching. On full formal occasions, they would also wear the
coloured hood showing that they had a University degree.

Ali:-

Yep, in my school the teachers wore their academic gowns, and that 
was in the late 80's (ok middle ish). For all I know, they still do.

 
 Pip!Squeak:

 No character in the WW has an identifiable religion. Not one. We're
not even sure whether Voldemort is non-religious, or sold-his-soul-
to-evil-for-power religious. [Yes, folks, selling your soul to evil
in exchange for power is 'religious'. You have to believe in a) a
soul and b) an evil supernatural power before you can do it. ;-) ]

One of the things JKR is examining in her books is prejudice. One of
the major prejudices in the UK-and-Northern-Ireland is religion.
Famously in Northern Ireland, less famously but still present in the
mainland UK. There are UK cities where you select your football team
according to your denomination. I've seen reporters in national
magazines announce that X shouldn't have been given that job because
they are of Y religion, and that will make them 'biased'. [Insert
whichever religion or denomination you like for Y, including
atheism. I've seen most of them suggested as 'bias'].

Ali:-

I agree totally with your rationale, but I disagree that religion is 
such a cause for prejudice in Mainland UK, well, at least in terms 
of Christian denominations. Religious prejudice is present, but I 
have never come across it in *England* in the way that I've seen it 
in Northern Ireland and Glasgow. The fact that England has not had a 
law against religious discrimination points to the fact that it has 
not been seen as a major cause for prejudice – or it has been picked 
up by race discrimination laws (this is to change though).

Anyway, back to the Potterverse


Funnily enough, although I agree that JKR has been at pains to 
exclude religion from the books, in some ways, I feel that it is 
religion that will be the key to the solution.

I apologise for banging this drum again, but I believe that a 
fundamental difference between Harry and Voldemort will be how they 
view death – and the afterlife. I think that Harry's acceptance of 
death and Voldemort's great fear of it, could what in essence 
divides them – alluding to Dumbledore's question "but in essence 
divided" p. 416 OoP.

The WW do have something which is arguably worse than death - as 
Lupin says "Much worse than that" p. 183 PoA UK edition. They have 
the "Kiss". The Kiss sucks out a victim's soul; they are left 
without any feeling or residue of self. What we, the reader do not 
yet know, is whether the loss of soul means that they cannot go on 
the next great adventure. I believe that it does.

I wonder if this is what Dumbledore is thinking about in his duel
against Voldemort in the MoM, when he tells Voldemort that death
wouldn't be sufficient for him? IIRC, Dumbledore has said that a
weakness of Voldemort's is his failure to recognise that anything
can be worse than death. If you see death as marking the transition
between this world and the "next great adventure", but see the Kiss
as being an end, then it is quite easy to see that death is not the
worst thing that can happen to you. Voldemort totally fails to 
recognise or at least want the next great adventure.

Perhaps it is Harry's belief that he will see Sirius again, rather
than his love for him by itself that saves him from Voldemort's
possession? If this is the case, then I'm willing to hazard a guess
that this fundamental difference between Harry and Voldemort will be
absolutely key to the resolution of Book 7. This idea can be tied in
with the idea of saving one's soul, and can perhaps be linked back
to JKR's religious beliefs - supposedly a key to the ending of the
books.

It is interesting that the Dementors, the soul destroyers seem more 
interested in Harry than say his fellow Quidditch players. In PoA 
Harry identified the Dementors as his biggest fear. Perhaps Lupin 
was wrong, and it wasn't that Harry was afraid of fear itself, but 
that Harry subconsciously understood the threat that the Dementors 
posed – especially to him. His belief in an afterlife does seem to 
be subconscious. He is saved from possession by Voldemort because in 
willing himself to die, he thinks he'll see Sirius again.

But, it is really only when Luna talks about seeing her mother again 
that Harry reassesses what he felt in the death chamber – namely the 
feeling that there were people murmuring and waiting just beyond the 
veil. He feels better after he had talked to Luna, his oppressive 
weight of grief lightened a bit. I wonder if this is Luna's real 
role in the books. She helps Harry to accept things that he knows 
but is not able to express or even understand. Whereas Hermione can 
treat Harry as a "normal" wizard and keep his feet firmly on the 
ground, Luna can help him on a different plain altogether. It is 
this plain which Harry must understand to prepare him for his final 
battle against Voldemort.

Ali