Harry and Tom

[Josh Warren]

No: HPFGUIDX 110694

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Neisha Saxena 
<neisha_saxena at y...> wrote:
> Oh dear.  You seem to have snipped out my real
> question.  So, I'll ask it again in hopes of a
> response.  

My bad :-)
 
> What is it with Harry and his "saving people thing"? 
> This is just as extreme, IMHO, as LV's reaction to his
> very similar childhood.  There is a
> super-hero/super-villan dichotomy between Harry and
> Voldemort that is extremely interesting.  They are
> mirror images of each other.  

I'll boil it down into 2 things: abandonment and dependability.

1) Abandonment

As an orphan with his 'relatives' Harry suffered. He had know one to 
look out for him, and he knows it. Survivors often feel, at least for 
a while, that the dead abandoned them, and orphans feel this most 
acutely. Parents are _supposed_ to be there, after all. 

Now, if someone is in trouble, not helping them is abandoning them to 
their fate... or to someone else's rescue attempts. Even a delay is 
abandonment for that length of time. I would say that Harry cannot 
stomache abandoning those he cares for in this fashion.

2) Dependability

Even after arriving at Hogwarts, Harry doesn't exactly learn to trust 
that others (adults, rather) will fill in for him when something 
needs doing. Hagrid doesn't believe that Snape (or any faculty 
member) is after the stone, Minerva doesn't believe that anyone is 
after the stone, Lockhart won't even attempt to help Ginny, the 
government shows its unfairness repeatedly, etc. If Harry doesn't do 
the rescuing, who else will? No one, at least not for sure.

How's that? :)
Josh