Harry's far from ruthless (Long)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 89204

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sachmet96" <sachmet96 at y...> 
wrote:

sachmet96:
> I know that his life was at stake and I see that he had to defend 
his 
> life but what I am complaining about is that when in the infirmary 
> and DD tells him that Voldemort left Quirrell to die he doesn't 
even 
> ask if Quirrell is dead. How much more ruthless can you get?
> Also DD doesn't say Voldemort killed Quirrell but left him to die. 
> It's not clear why Quirerell is going to die but the probability 
> that's from the wounds Harry dealt him is very high but Harry 
doesn't 
> even ask if that's the case. So that is also very ruthless.
> But instead of batting an eye Harry goes on and asks questions 
about 
> himself (why Snape hated his father, how he was able to get the 
> stone). Actually I think this whole infirmary scene shows much 
about 
> Harry's character.
> Also in book 3 he doesn't stop to even think about Snape after they 
> stunned him and then doesn't complain about Sirius banging Snape's 
> head against the ceiling. 
> I think one of Harry's weaknesses is that he is able to show 
> compassion and such but only for people he likes/cares about. 
People 
> he dislikes do not concern him. The only curious thing is that he 
> didn't dislike Quirrell a whole year long but also doesn't ask if 
he 
> is alive at the end, of course he saw a different Quirrell but 
still 
> I think that's a character trait that one should not overlook.


Geoff:
I'm sorry to disagree but I think that you are being unfair to Harry 
in describing him as ruthless. I would like to look in particular at 
the scenes in the hospital wing and the Shrieking Shack to which you 
have made reference. 

All quotes I am using in this part of my comments are from 
Philosopher's Stone "The Man with Two Faces" pp.213-5 UK edition.

Harry has just been attacked by Quirrell who finds that his hands are 
blistering
.

"'Then kill him, fool, and be done!' screeched Voldemort.
Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse but Harry, by 
instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face. –
`AAAARGH!'
Quirrell rolled off him, his face blistering too and then Harry knew: 
Quirrell couldn't touch his bare skin, not without suffering terrible 
pain – his only chance was to keep hold of Quirrell, keep him in 
enough pain to stop him doing a curse.
Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm and hung on as 
tight as he could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off – 
the pain in Harry's head was building – he couldn't see – he could 
only hear Quirrell's terrible shrieks an Voldemort's yells of `KILL 
HIM! KILL HIM!' and other voices, maybe in Harry's own head, 
crying `Harry! Harry!'
He felt Quirrell's arm wrenched from his grasp, knew all was lost and 
fell into blackness, down
 down
 down
"

Here we have a potentially fatal attack on Harry. Voldemort isn't 
playing around. He wants Harry dead. Harry's reaction is a reflex – 
to grab Quirrell, to stop (presumably) an Avada Kedavra. He then 
hangs on for dear life. Obviously, Voldemort's proximity is affecting 
his scar, he is disorientated, in pain and fighting for his own life. 
He wakes up. He is again disorientated and has to work out where he 
is
.

"Something gold was glinting just above him. The Snitch! He tried to 
catch it but his arms were too heavy.
He blinked. It wasn't the Snitch at all. It was a pair of glasses. 
How strange."

"Harry swallowed and looked around him. He realised he must be in the 
hospital wing. He was lying in a bed with white linen sheets

"

"'How long have I been in here?'
`Three days. Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Granger will be most 
relieved that you have come round, they have been extremely worried.'"

So, he came out of the fight in poor shape. He has taken three days 
to come round. He needs to catch up on himself and find out what was 
going on.

"'I arrived just in time to pull Quirrell off you –`
`It was you.'
`I feared I might be too late.'
`You nearly were. I couldn't have kept him off the Stone much longer –
`
`Not the Stone, boy, you – the effort involved very nearly killed 
you. For one terrible moment there, I was afraid it had. As for the 
Stone, it has been destroyed.'"

Right. Harry's life was in extreme danger. As an aside, Dumbledore's 
comment is interesting that Harry's own effort nearly killed him – I 
wonder why? He has been hauled back to safety. At this point, there 
is no reference to what has happened to Quirrell and before it might 
have occurred to Harry to  ask after Quirrell, Dumbledore takes his 
thoughts off in another direction by referring to the Stone's 
destruction.

Harry immediately shows concern about Flamel. Someone he does not 
know but who is now under threat. After Dumbledore's comments, 
Harry's thoughts move on to Voldemort and the threat he poses.

"'Yes, sir. Well, Voldemort's going to try other ways of coming back, 
isn't he? I mean, he hasn't gone, has he?'
`No, Harry, he has not. He is still out there somewhere, perhaps 
looking for another body to share
 not being truly alive, he cannot 
be killed. He left Quirrell to die; he shows just as little mercy to 
his followers as his enemies
'"

At this point, Harry does not ask after Quirrell. Why not? Because of 
the way in which Dumbledore comments on Quirrell. The use of the past 
tense without any qualifier. There is no comment added such as

"but the ambulance got to him and found him still alive."
"but despite that, we managed to save him." 
Just "He left Quirrell to die."

The finality of Dumbledore's comment would make me, as a listener 
realise that Quirrell was already dead. So too, I suspect, does Harry 
for whom Quirrell is a member of the Hogwarts hierarchy, another 
teacher with whom Harry had little relationship outside the 
classroom. It is to me as if I was told that a member of the Town 
Council had died in an accident. Sad, but not touching me at a 
personal level. So, was Harry being ruthless in this situation? No 
way. He had been viciously and murderously attacked, had fought off 
Quirrell until rescued. We do not know quite why he died; perhaps 
Voldemort's possession had weakened him to the point that a 
withdrawal was fatal. But we are told that /Voldemort/ left him to 
die.

How about the scene in the Shrieking Shack? Snape appears and ties up 
Lupin and there is a confrontation with Sirius.

Quotes from  POA "The Servant of Lord Voldemort" pp.264-65 UK edition.

"'Vengeance is very sweet,' Snape breathed at Black. `How I hoped I 
would be the one to catch you
'
`The joke's on you again, Severus,' snarled Black. `As long as this 
boy brings his rat up to the castle –` he jerked his head at Ron, `- 
I'll come quietly.'
`Up to the castle?' said Snape silkily. `I don't think we need to go 
that far. All I have to do is call the Dementors once we get out of 
the Willow. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black
. Pleased 
enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay
.'
What little colour there was in Black's face left it.
`You – you've got to hear me out,' he croaked. `The rat – look at the 
rat-`
But there was a mad glint in Snape's eye that Harry had never seen 
before. He seemed beyond reason."

So now who's being ruthless? Harry instinctively blocks the door – he 
obviously realises the enormity of Snape's actions in ignoring the 
possibility of Black telling the truth and the personal disaster it 
could provoke for Sirius.

"'Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already,' 
snarled Snape. `If I hadn't been here to save your skin –`
`Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this 
year,' Harry said. `I've been alone with him loads of times, having 
defence lessons against the Dementors. If he was helping Black, why 
didn't he just finish me off then?'
`Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works,' hissed 
Snape. `Get out of the way, Potter.'"

Harry gets angry and Snape "looking madder than ever" and threatens 
to make Harry get out of the way. Harry uses an Expelliarmus spell to 
disarm Snape at the same moment as Ron and Hermione. He is obviously 
concerned that Snape's hatred is leading him to fly in the face of 
comments about the miscarriage of justice which has happened. It is 
interesting to see his reaction after Snape is knocked out


"Harry avoided Black's eyes. He wasn't sure, even now, that he'd done 
the right thing."

Although, he still has not been convinced the evidence of Sirius' 
innocence which has yet to come, he is sufficiently concerned by 
Snape's alarming behaviour to feel the need to intervene. His 
behaviour here is the opposite of ruthless. He takes time to try to 
convince Snape to listen to reason – although his distrust and 
annoyance with him is showing - but only takes action when Snape 
makes it obvious he is prepared to attack Harry in order to exact his 
revenge on Sirius Black. Bearing in mind his age, he has handled this 
well; his misgivings afterwards show us that his conscience is 
switched on. OK, so he doesn't apparently concern himself with Snape 
but the action and conversation are being driven by the revelations 
about Peter coming from Sirius and Remus.

Harry has not necessarily done the right things here is these two 
scenes, but the evidence is certainly weighted against him being 
ruthless. Let us examine ourselves. How often do I meet someone who 
has, maybe, been ill and I realise afterwards that I didn't ask about 
their health because we were involved in talk about other things? Or 
forget to phone someone to check on them
..  If I don't always 
remember at my age, why should I blame Harry who, like any teenager, 
is still learning social skills and also has all the extra stress of 
his position to cope with?

Geoff