LV never loved anyone

[inkling108]

No: HPFGUIDX 110368

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "tonks_op" <tonks_op at y...> > 
Tonks op wrote:
  But there is a question that I too ask myself about 
> Harry.  How is it that he is so good?  Now the Dursleys were not 
> all that bad. He could have fared much worse. They must have done 
> something right.

Inkling now:

As a mother I have always wondered how Harry could have turned out 
so healthy when he seems to have received virtually no love from the 
age of fifteen months on.  If true, this would be a real miracle -- 
very high magic, requiring tremendous strength of personality.  Most 
extraordinary is his willingness to trust people in spite of 
everything.

Maybe Petunia has another secret in addition to hidden magical 
tendencies.  Maybe she did cuddle and nurture Harry a bit as a baby, 
when Vernon and Dursley weren't looking, of course.  Maybe at some 
point Harry will look into his memory (he seems to have a very deep 
memory) and find some things about Petunia that he has forgotten. 

It's possible also that she has quietly done some things to help him 
at times, things Harry would never know about.  While she is not 
exactly the Balm of Gilead, she is less aggressive toward Harry than 
Vernon or Dudley.  And the very fact that she seems so angry at her 
sister indicates that she may in fact love her deep down inside.  
You don't usually get angry at people you are indifferent to.  I 
would like to think she wouldn't be totally cold to Lily's baby.


> Now to the question.  Given the circumstances of his childhood is 
> Voldemort responsible for his actions?  Yes.  Even if he feels no 
> love or compassion for others he knows the difference between 
right 
> and wrong and in that way is responsible. But to some extent so 
are 
> we as a society.

Given how important choice is to JKR, I would agree here.  But in 
Voldy's case, we still need to know more.   I think this is what JKR 
was hinting at when she said that this question is a good lead in to 
the Half Blood Prince.  Not so much the individual HBP (whoever that 
may be) but the book itself -- I think she is indicating that we 
will find out the whole story of what made Tom Riddle into Voldy. 

Inkling