Quirrell dying (was Harry's far from ruthless )

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 89226

Sachmet:
> > 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. <<

Naama:
>> In short, Harry tends to dislike with very good reason. All 
these 
 people (other then Snape, maybe) do not *deserve* 
compassion. And  when I say that they don't deserve 
compassion, I mean that *JKR* doesn't see them as deserving 
compassion. So, it's hardly fair to  blame Harry for this, is it?<<

Lupin and Sirius aren't setting a good example, are they? I'm not 
sure this means that JKR thinks that compassion should be 
given only to those who deserve it.  I think she wants to show that 
caring for others is something even good people have trouble 
with for various reasons, one of which is that we all start out as 
self-centered infants. We should grow out of it,  but not everyone 
does. 

One of JKR's recurring metaphors is Evil as infancy.  Voldemort, 
Bella, Pettigrew and the DE who gets stuck in the timeloop are 
all explicitly babylike. One way to become evil, JKR seems to be 
saying, is to  never grow up enough to care about anybody but 
yourself. 

Harry at eleven doesn't have any sympathy to spare for Quirrell. 
He  is barely able to comprehend that Snape, who hates him, 
nonetheless cared enough about him to save his life. But on the 
verge of sixteen he's  discovered that like it or not, he knows 
exactly how Snape feels. He's also  discovered that he can feel 
sorry for Luna even though she annoys him dreadfully, and that, 
strangely enough, sympathy for her makes his own grief easier 
to bear.

Pippin