Harry's Use of an Unforgivable Curse

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 96094

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Dysis" <d.marchel at c...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
> <dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:
> > Oh, I agree that Harry should not be charged. If anything he 
> deserves 
> > praise that even being in such pain and raging at Bella he did not 
> > have enough hate to cast the right Crucio.
> 
> Dysis:
> I completely disagree. Just because Harry cannot cast Crucio the 
> correct way doesn't justify the fact that he did try. In our 
> society, a criminal can be punished for attempted murder. That 
> doesn't mean that he killed anyone, but it means that he wanted to. 
> That in itself is a crime. Harry had enough anger in him to want to 
> hurt Bellatrix. The justice system doesn't care if it was "righteous 
> anger" or not. I think JKR is trying to tell us that Harry has a lot 
> of anger that he can't control, and pretty soon it'll cause him some 
> problems.

The justice system does care if it's righteous anger or not - the
state of mind of the actors always matters. If this was the Muggle
world, the prosecutor probably wouldn't bring charges at all, given
the circumstances, and if he did, you'd have a heck of a time finding
a jury that would convict Harry of anything.  They'd be back in twenty
minutes.  

I disagree completely with your take on JKR's intentions in that
scene.  The focus of that incident (which JKR did not overly emphasize
in the context of the entire sequence) was not that Harry cast the
Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix, but that he couldn't bring himself to
agonize Bellatrix properly, even after all she did.  JKR made sure we
got the point by having Bellatrix explain it to us. (Actually, I'd
rather get what Bellatrix got than the wand in the eye Neville gave
MacNair. Ouch.)

 JKR drew a tremendously stark contrast between Harry, who has the
capacity to love that Voldemort knows not (Bellatrix doesn't seem
clued in either) and psycho, sadistic Bellatrix, who darn near goes
into ecstasy at the thought of excruciating brave, honest Neville, the
son of the couple she tortured into madness.

JKR does not expect Harry to be a pacifist plaster saint. Her heroes
are all fighters when they need to be, even if that's not what they
are naturally. No matter the stress Harry's under, his humanity and
compassion emerge in the end in ways extraordinary for anyone, never
mind a fifteen year old.  What halps to bring him back from his
despair at losing Sirius? Pity and compassion for Luna, his friend. 
At the same time, JKR has no problem with the idea of rough justice,
dealt out again to Draco and his goons on the train by Harry and the DA's.

I like that yin and yang.