Angry Harry in HBP?

[sevenhundredandthirteen]

No: HPFGUIDX 119550


An article in today's paper (Sydney Morning Herald, Dec 9 2004: 
http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/12/08/1102182348990.html ) had a few 
comments from Fiona Boyle (author  of "A Muggle's Guide to Harry 
Potter")  in which she says she expects Harry to continue throwing 
temper tantrums in the next books. Whilst I don't think Harry will 
give up his angst that easily, I think it would be thematically 
better (and more representative of real-life coping) for Harry to 
act down, depressed and hopeless, not still angry.

Hermione, the voice of reason, directly addresses Harry's 'saving 
people thing' at the end of OotP. This then leads to Sirius' death, 
and Harry knows it. To me, this suggests that Harry will reject this 
part of himself entirely. 'If I try to save people, they die. In 
that case I won't try any more.'

Can Harry stay angry at Dumbledore when the man admits to everything 
he screams at him in a violent rage? Can he even stay angry at 
Voldemort when he's just been told he has little choice but to 
murder him? Dumbledore's interpretation of the prophecy basically 
orders Harry to hate Voldemort. Will Harry want to do what he has 
been ordered to do by some mystic prophetic force? I don't think
so. And I think that in order to resist the prophecy Harry will 
surrender to it, get very depressed about his, apparently, imminent 
death and then just give up all hope entirely.

In OotP we saw Harry actively reject what was being thrown at him- 
resisting Umbridge, starting the DA, yelling at people quite a lot. 
In HBP I want to see Harry fall into the status quo and let all that 
happen without trying to help. By rejecting his courage- the part of 
him that wants to help others- I expect Harry to give up in many 
things- quit Quidditch, stop trying in school, refuse to defend 
Draco's taunts, let Snape win. Maybe even start a spending spree 
with his Gringotts account, figuring 'Well, Voldemort is going to 
kill me one of these days, I better give myself as many fancy 
presents as I can.'

I want him to see Harry turn into the despicable Draco Malfoy and 
see his reaction when he looks at his own reflection and discovers 
what he has reduced himself to.

Only through his friends proving how much they actually need him 
will Harry once again gain hope and find some reason to carry on. I 
want Harry to choose to fight Voldemort because he believes it to be 
the right thing to do, not because some prophecy told him to. And in 
order to do that, I think Harry should see what a lack of bravery 
does- how despicable he becomes when he is a coward, or, just 
apathetic.

I think the determination to fight Voldemort to the death and to 
accept his place in the prophecy should come only after Harry has 
surrendered to it all. I think for Harry to give up his strong 
Gryffindor traits of bravery and courage for a period of time will 
make his final battle with Voldemort much more powerful. He isn't 
brave and courageous because he has some innate inborn quality- he 
has to *choose* to use it.

~<(Laurasia)>~