Love and Forgiveness - long

[hansiregi]

No: HPFGUIDX 80549

Hi Group,

I am only an occasional visitor to HPFGU, so pardon me if this topic 
has been discussed before.

I have been re-reading the last few chapters of Order of the Phoenix 
and have been thinking about Voldemort's final defeat.  We all know 
that it was love and sacrifice that first saved Harry from Voldemort 
and protected him over the years.  It was Harry's love for Sirius 
that saved him from Volemort's clutches at the end of the last book.  
Finally, love is the most mysterious power that resides in the 
Department of Mysteries.  I believe that this is one of the forces 
that will defeat Voldemort in the end.

However, Dumbledore hinted that Harry may one day have to choose what 
is right over what is easy.  What could be less easy than 
forgiveness?  There are certainly plenty of people in Harry's life 
that could use his forgiveness -- the Dursley's, unkind Hogworts 
staff like Snape, and Voldemort himself.  We were given a hint in the 
latest book that an understanding seemed to be developing between 
Aunt Petunia and Harry.  In addition to learning how much his aunt 
knows about wizarding world, will Harry discover the true source of 
her deep resentment toward her sister?  Can an understanding of the 
neglect they both may have suffered allow them to forgive each other?

In Order of the Phoenix we caught a glimpse of the wretched childhood 
and adolescence of Severus Snape.  Can Harry bring himself to accept 
that Snape's odious behavior toward him is an outgrowth of the 
cruelties he himself suffered as a youth?  Can Harry forgive him?

Finally, the unthinkable: Can Harry forgive Voldemort?  Voledmort, 
perhaps not, because I do not think of Voldemort as a person but as a 
force of Evil itself.  The man who now calls himself Voldemort, Tom 
Riddle, was a wronged and neglected child like many other characters 
in this story, and his anger, hate and unwillingness to forgive 
allowed the force of Evil to possess him.  During Dumbledore's most 
recent encounter with him he addressed him as "Tom", not necessarily  
as a teacher would have addressed his student, but perhaps because he 
was trying to reach the real man within Voldemort.  I think if Harry 
could forgive that orphaned boy, he could destroy the evil force 
known to the wizarding world as Voldemort.