What's in the locked room?

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 89078

Geoff wrote:
> my opinion as a Christian – is agape which is, I suppose, best 
> described as the altruistic, serving, love which is not seeking 
> anything in return but seeks only the best interest of its 
recipient. 
> Harry frequently wants the best for his friends; he wants to see 
them 
> kept from Voldemort's clutches; he wants things to go right for 
them. 
> Does he want anything in return? Maybe sometimes – friendship, 
> support, honesty. But there are times when he acts for their best 
as 
> he sees it. Sometimes rashly, sometimes unthinkingly but he has 
been 
> known to put his life on the line for the benefit of others and so 
> would recognise the idea of agape. Voldemort, paralleled in a way 
by 
> Sauron, cannot even begin to see this. He uses people, discards 
them 
> when their usefulness is over, destroys them if they get in his way 
> and could not, even in his wildest dreams, envisage the idea of 
> giving without expectation of return or that anyone would think 
> differently to him. This is the failure which both JKR and JRRT 
point 
> up in their various personifications of evil.
> 
> So I subscribe to the view that "the room" is involved with Love 
and 
> Truth and, hence, Voldemort cannot visualise the effect of what is 
> contained therein.

Berit replies:

By the way; just something I forgot in my other response to Geoff's 
post; the quote is so beautiful I have to include it:

Quote:

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all 
knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not 
love, I am nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, 
it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not 
easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight 
in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always 
trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; 
where there is knowledge, it will pass away...

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of 
these is love." (from the Bible: 1 Cor. 13)

This is exactly the kind of speech old Dumbledore could have held, 
isn't it? And note the similarities between the Bible's definition of 
Love and DD's "speech" about the mysterious power in that special 
room at the MoM:
Quote: "It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more 
terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of 
nature...Perhaps the most mysterious of the many subjects for 
study... In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your 
mind. It was your heart that saved you." (GoF p. 743)

In Harry's worst moment, when he was possessed by Voldemort, he was 
beyond faith and hope, but "The greatest of them all", Love, 
prevailed and saved Harry...

Quote:" ...I [Dumbledore] acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools 
who love to act..." (GoF p. 739)

Berit
http://home.no.net/berjakob/snape.html