The Tempting of Harry

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 95622

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mcdee1980" <idrinkjameson at h...> wrote:

> Ohhh this could get interesting
> 
>     If we are following a true heroic pattern here you are absolutely 
> right; Harry has to be tempted by evil of some sort.  My vote is that 
> he is tempted by another student, not an adult.  Who better to fall 
> into that roll than Harry's arch rival, Draco Malfoy?  Draco tried to 
> entice HP into his circle as soon as they got to school their first 
> year. Does anyone remember if he's done it since? Draco hasn't served 
> the plot in any MAJOR way outside of comic relief and getting the 
> trio in trouble, unless you count Harry believing that Draco is the 
> heir of Slytherin.   Somewhere in these next two books he's going to 
> become a major player, instead of a major pain in the butt.  His 
> father is in jail.  Now would be the time for him to step up.  We've 
> seen the trio and their friends fighting the bad guy grownups all 
> along.  When do the DE kids get involved?
> 

This is where I could get some posters stirred up.

There's an old proverb, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Starting with that as a basis for this putative thread I've been scanning 
the horizon for someone who is liable to offer simplistic remedies to
complex problems -  and it wouldn't be a Slytherin;  Harry wouldn't
touch them with a barge-pole.

Prime candidate: Luna Lovegood.

At  the end of  OoP Harry seems to see her almost as a sympathetic
fellow-sufferer. This could be very dodgy. She has her own little world,
apparently constructed from the remnants of 60s hippiedom and
weird conspiracy  theories. (Sounds like me on a bad day.) Not too
tightly wrapped, is our Luna.

If she becomes the repository for young Potter's woes, I dread to think
what advice she might come up with. And that's assuming that her 
intentions are benign - not something that can be taken for granted.
Her mother died in a potions explosion or back-firing spell or something
(what the hell was it? A recipe from the WW version of the Anarchist's 
Cookbook?) and her father is the local gutter-press sleaze merchant. 
Not the sort of background to inspire confidence.

Her appearance in OoP seemed a bit puzzling despite the cries of joy
from serial SHIPpers. What effect is she intended to have on the
plot arc? Can't see her transforming from the ugly duckling into the 
graceful swan that is the general progression of the hero's love interest.
A bird of ill-omen is more like it.

Not totally committed to this - yet. Other suspects to be pored over,
other favourite characters to malign before finally nailing the colours to
the mast, but she leads the pack at the moment.

Kneasy