What I have a hard time with in the canon...

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 96269

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" 
<catlady at w...> wrote:
> I agree with you. Here is my old answer from years ago:
> 
> If Dumbledore knew just how badly the Dursleys would treat Harry, it
> was foolish or desperate of him to leave Harry there, or wizards'
> psychology is different from that of Muggles, dogs, and cats. The
> kinds of beings that I know about, bring them up in constant abuse 
and
> no example of goodness, and they grow up either broken terrified
> cowards who'll do anything to (something like Pettigrew in GoF) or
> cynical tough guys who'll do anything to triumph (something like Tom
> Riddle). Neither is good preparation for being a hero to rescue the
> wizarding world.
> 
> I think Lily was able, with her magic, to put an image of herself in
> her baby's mind, that would be like an 'imaginary mum' (by analogy
> with 'imaginary friend') who would cuddle Harry and tell him that 
> he's a good kid who doesn't deserve Dursley abuse and tell him about
> how decent people behave, thus being that one caring adult ("example
> of goodness" in previous paragraph) said to be necessary to even a
> 'resilient' child's survival of serious abuse... I kind of think 
Lily
> used her last magic to put this image in his head intentionally,
> instead of using her last magic in one last attempt to escape
> Voldemort. That is the heroic self-sacrifce that canon credits her,
> accepting her own death because it was more important to her to give
> this protection (from abusive Dursleys) of her love. I don't know 
why
> she would do that if she really believed that he would be dead 
> seconds after she was, so I am left sympathetic to the theories that
> Harry survived AK because of some magic that had been done on him
> (presumably by Lily) or that he had been born with. 
> 
> When Harry resisted the Imperius Curse, the Curse's Moody-voice in 
> his head told him to jump up on the desk, and "another voice had
> awoken in the back of his brain. Stupid to do, really, said the
> voice." I believe that that other voice is what's left of the
> image-Lily after all these years; she doesn't appear often, she
> appears as Harry's voice instead of her own, but she still is caring
> for Harry -- and still has free will.
> 
> In addition, so far we've always seen Harry wondering and trying to
> find out about his father, and not about his mother. Some say 
that's 
> a plot device because JKR is saving some big surprise about Lily, 
and
> some say it's normal because Harry is 11 to 14 so far, puberty and
> adolescence, and much more concerned about a male image to identify
> with. But *I* say that he doesn't search so much for Lily because,
> unknown to himself, he already has her with him.


Catlady, I love your theory. Absolutely love it. "Imaginary mum" in 
Harry's mind would indeed help him to resist the abuse. At least it 
makes Harry's reaction to abuse  somehow possible.

Of course, it would be extremely arrogant of me to assert that there 
are no children in RL who escape abuse at home undamaged, but in 
three years of working with domestic violence survivors, I am still 
to meet one. 

Please notice that I am NOT talking about abuse at school. In this 
situation child at least has a family at home to help him escape from 
it.

Anyways, back to Harry and Lily. I would love if in the final battle 
with Voldie Lily's spirit would help her son again.


Alla