Harry as Kreacher was Re: Snape at school was Should Harry have told on DJU

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 100673

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" <delwynmarch at y...>
wrote:
> 
> Annemehr wrote previously:
> > Perhaps the main difference between Harry and Kreacher is that Harry
> > appears to have a much greater capacity to consider and decide between
> > right and wrong
<snip>
> 
> Del replies :
> But it doesn't seem to me that Harry considers things much.

Annemehr:
Going to chop this up and respond point by point (and, hi, Del!).
Anyway, you're right -- he considers many things far too little. For
instance, it seems that to Harry, Slytherin House *is* Draco Malfoy
(with a cheating Quidditch team appended) -- never a thought at all
that any of the others might be decent people. Learning Snape saved
his life in Year One never seemed to have had an effect, either.   So,
yes, he does show a great propensity to jump to his conclusions and
stick there! <gives Harry a shake by the shoulders>

Del:
> He reminds
> me very much of Percy at times. As long as Percy was at Hogwarts, he
> followed the local leader, DD. When he left, he naturally shifted his
> loyalty to his new bosses.

Annemehr:
Wellll... what examples do we have? I can only think of the very minor
one of CoMC classes.  When Hagrid is absent and the very talented
Professor Grubbly-Plank takes over, Harry's loyalty sticks very firmly
with Hagrid. It's not a very good example, perhaps, but do you have
anything on the other side? I don't think we've had any real
opportunity to see Harry put to the test in this way at all.

Del:
> As long as Harry is at Hogwarts, he follows
> DD, but that doesn't mean he's actually thought about it. It looks
> more like an automatic decision to me, not a conscious one. And when
> he *does* have to make a conscious decision, like trusting and obeying
> Snape, he fails. So I'm not at all sure that Harry is on the side of
> Good because he truly wants it. I don't feel he has truly chosen yet.
> The only thing he's sure of, is that he hates LV, and that is not a
> moral decision IMO.
> 
> Del

Annemehr:
Okay, Harry's opposition to LV can't help but be personal. But I
always thought there was more to it; that he actually had consciously
chosen the good side because it's good. Let's see if I can't find some
of the canon that made me think that...

PS ch 16, Harry on why he has to go after the Stone:

"[...]If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have
to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there,
it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going
over to the Dark Side! I'm going through that tapdoor tonight and
nothing you two say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents,
remember?"

I clearly see both the personal motive and the choice of the good side
here, as Harry seems to believe he could avoid dying by going over to
the Dark Side. I won't accept an argument that Harry prefers death
over evil merely because Hagrid says "great man, Dumbledore" either. ;)

In PoA, I always felt that Harry learned something important about
himself and revenge when he found he couldn't kill the supposed
traitor Sirius. I think this at least moves his motivation for
fighting LV away from simple vengeance toward wanting to stop the
slaughter.

Finally (for now, anyway), one of the most powerful passages in GoF
(which my book should naturally fall open to by now from me quoting
it) -- Harry lying in bed at night after seeing Dumbledore's pensieve
memories, GoF ch. 31:

"He often got sympathy from strangers for being an orphan, but as he
listened to Neville's snores, he thought that Neville deserved it more
than he did. Lying in the darkness, Harry felt a rush of anger and
hate toward the people who had tortured Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom.
[...]Then he remembered the milk-white face of the screaming boy and
realized with a jolt that he had died a year later....

It was Voldemort, Harry thought, staring up at the canopy of his bed
in the darkness, it all came back to Voldemort....He was the one who
had torn these families apart, who had ruined all these lives...."

Harry's own difficult life gives him a great capacity for empathy for
the *other* people whom Voldemort has damaged and killed. It's not
just himself that Harry cares about. Just my opinion, then, but I am
quite sure that Harry *has* made a deliberate choice for the good
side. Obviously he does still have a lot to learn about making
judgments, controlling himself, and being straight with Order members.
He also needs, IMO, to be told about some things in a more
straightforward manner. Fortunately, I'm expecting some of this in the
next book!

You mentioned Harry not trusting Snape.  I agree he should have done
better in the Occlumency lessons. On the other hand, he did show a
little trust in Umbridge's office in OoP ch. 32:

"[Snape's] cold, dark eyes were boring into Harry's, who met his gaze
unflinchingly, concentrating hard on what he had seen in his dream,
willing Snape to read it in his mind, to understand ..."

Hey, it was a start! Too bad neither he nor any of the others seemed
to realise that Snape *must* have got the message and could be trusted
to do something about it...

Annemehr