Hate Harry / Love Harry

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 100996

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
> Meri wrote :
> > In fact one of the qualities that always struck me about Harry 
was 
> > his compassion for others.
> 
> Del replies :
> Eeck, Compassionate!Harry again :-) !!! Sorry, but Harry never 
struck
> me as particularly compassionate. He is a bit, all right, like 
tons of
> people, but I don't find him exceptionally compassionate. Nope.
> 

Meri back again to clear up her original post: Harry, for someone 
who was raised the way he was, *is* exceptionally compassionate. He 
spent ten years in an abusive household, and that he came out of 
that situation with the ability to feel anything at all towards 
others that isn't contempt is really impressive to me. 

> Meri wrote :
> > When he first meets Dobby he asks him to sit (like, Dobby says, 
an 
> > equal) and by the end of the book has not only made an effort to 
> > know more about Dobby but also to help him, something most 
wizards 
> > wouldn't have done.
> 
> Del replies :
> Would you have done things differently ? I wouldn't. And Hermione
> neither : she's even set up an association to "help" the Elves. She
> might be wrong, but she has her heart in the right place.
> And let's not forget that when it comes to Elves, Harry can't be
> compared to other wizards : he didn't grow up learning to dismiss
> House-Elves.

Meri: Well, I don't know whatI would have done if a house elf showed 
up in my bedroom and proceeded to make noise while the people 
downstairs were pretending that I didn't exsist. I might have just 
chucked Dobby out of the window and be done with it, especially if I 
was in fear of my life or my future at Hogwarts. And yes there is 
Hermione, but one other example is not "most wizards", and 
Hermione's actions towards house elves are less from compassion and 
more from righteous indignation. If she did feel compassion towards 
them she would have just let Winky alone in GoF. 


> Meri wrote :
> > At the end of the ressurection scene in GoF, Harry grants 
> > Ghost!Cedric's wish to return his body to his parents, something 
> > which he does at great cost to himself.
> 
> Del replies :
> Yep, *that* one really impressed me !!

Meri: Sarcasm? I can't tell. But it did really impress me. Harry was 
being chased and shot at by thirty DEs and LV himself, and because 
of the weight of Cedric's body he could barely reach for the cup. If 
he hadn't come up with Accio in time we'd be reading a different 
book 5. If I were in that situation, I probably would have dropped 
Cedric like a hot potato and booked it for all *my* life, but Harry 
didn't, even though no one would have faulted him for it if he had. 

> Meri wrote :
> > He never tells Ron or Hermione about Neville's parents after 
> > learning about their fate
> 
> Del replies :
> So what ? He was forbidden to, he had no right to do so.

Meri: There are lots of things Harry is forbidden to do, and that 
usually doesn't stop him from gettin Ron and Hermione involved. 
 
> Meri wrote :
> > and at the end of OotP, as he is torn assunder with grief over 
> > Sirius' death he feels *pity* for Luna because she is made fun 
of 
> > and because people steal her books and things. He even offers to 
> > help her look for them.
> 
> Del replies :
> Yeah, I loved that scene ! Harry is growing up, discovering that 
other
> people can suffer even while he's suffering himself, and that 
helping
> them can help relief his own pain a little bit. He's growing up 
all right.

Meri: Once again, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but 
the fact is that Harry had never felt worse at that point, and while 
wallowing in self loathing and greif he managed to feel for another 
person. I don't know, that's pretty compassionate to me. 
 
> Meri wrote :
> > And also to Harry being, to quote Del "one of those kids who 
can't 
> > be bothered by anything that doesn't concern them immediately" 
Harry 
> > gets involved plenty with things that don't concern him 
immideately, 
> > like both Pensieves, the Sorcerer's Stone, helping Hagrid with 
baby 
> > Norbert and Grawp, etc. Though I am sure that Dell would just 
> > dismiss that as nosiness.
> 
> Del replies :
> Er, you have to admit that the Pensieve episodes *were* nosiness,
> there's no denying that, is there ?
> The Sorcerer's stone was an intensely personal affair : Harry 
wanted
> to prevent Snape and LV from getting the Stone, because he hated 
them
> both.
> Helping Hagrid : he did it because Hagrid is his friend, so that 
was
> personal too. In both cases, he knew Hagrid was being dangerous and
> reckless, but he didn't turn him in because he's his friend.

Meri: I would actually call, at least the first pensieve scenes, 
curiosity, and I have a feeling that DD might have left out the 
pensieve so Harry would look. (But that's another post.) I still 
don't know Snape's motivations about his pensieve memories, but he 
must have been told by DD that Harry knew what a pensieve was and 
would surely look in it if he had the chance and Snape left it out 
anyway. That doesn't excuse Harry, but what would you have done? SS 
wasn't a personal affair at all, until Harry made it one, and I 
would argue that he only made it one out of pure curiosity, before 
even LV was suspected. And yes Hagrid is his friend, but Grawp and 
Norbert weren't really Harry's business, were they? And he helped 
out. 

> Meri wrote :
> > Anyway, one of the things that I love about JKR's books is that 
> > there is no single saintly perfect character who has no bad 
> > qualities. Every character has its good qualities and bad. Just 
> > like, last time I checked, real people. That's what makes them 
so 
> > compelling. 
> 
> Del replies :
> Absolutely !!
> And that's why I don't like Harry too much : because I don't like 
kids
> like him in real life. It's not a condemnation or whatever, it's 
just
> a statement of my personal preferences. After all, from what I 
know, I
> wouldn't have liked my husband too much if I'd met him when we were
> teenagers :-)

Meri: I am still unclear what you mean by "kids like him". Harry is 
pretty normal a kid. Do you mean average kids? Anyway, Harry is 
exactly the kind of kid I wish there were more of: fundamentally 
decent, fun, interesting, and totally normal. Well, sort of normal 
if you take away the targeted by LV thing. 
Meri - Harry lover till the end.