Some questions/comments about OOTP (LONG)

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 102866

 Bren, wrote:
>> They are both:

 - Half-blood
 - Parents-less
 - abused/ not loved
 - of similar appearances, though Tom is much taller
 - MARKED ONES who both had "the weight of the WW on his shoulders"
      *Tom: Heir of Slytherin, with the oh-so-great mission to "purge 
      those who are not worthy of studying Magic"
      *Harry: Voldemort's Equal, who must be either the murderer or 
      the victim of VM

My point is that their teenage selves are almost identical, and if
Harry is not careful then he might become something like Voldemort
himself. I'm sure if the book was written from Tom Riddle's POV, with
all of his intimate thoughts & pain, with him interacting with *his*
friends who share the same ideology, then we might feel the same
compassion towards Tom that we do with Harry.<<

HunterGreen:
But that list of things doesn't include *personality*, which is the 
most important thing to consider. By age 16, Tom was already letting 
the basilisk out and framing Hagrid, and he already had his Voldemort 
name worked out. Don't forget the *reason* Harry went to the MoM in 
the first place, and that was to save someone. As far as personality 
goes, Harry and Voldemort are quite a bit different--Voldemort is 
arrogant, while Harry typically has bouts of self-doubt; Voldemort is 
charismatic and an achiever in school, while Harry is rather limited 
to his three friends (although he has a few acquaintances, he's not 
close with any of them) and despite being good in quidditch, he's 
only so-so in school. 

As for Harry's "hormones" facilitating his attitude in OotP, I think 
that's a rather superficial assesment. If you look closely at his 
emotions, and keep in mind the *horrible* thing that happened to him 
at the end of GoF, then its quite possible he's suffering from post-
traumatic stress. And since he's been left to stew in those emotions, 
with no one really trying to help him (not in the way he needs help), 
then his actions are perfectly reasonable. I find the number of 
people who judge Harry baffling, he has ever right to be that angry 
after the number of things he's been through and the way he's been 
treated, and it has nothing at all to do with his age.

>>But then this compassion shouldn't justify Tom Riddle, right? He
turned to Dark Arts for outlet, who's to say HArry wouldn't? He
already used Crucio! and he even learned *how* to do it properly.<<

Voldemort *enjoys* killing/torturing people-that is ANY person, 
whether they wronged him or got in his way or anything, as far as 
the "crucio!" attempt goes, Harry used it against the person who had 
just killed his godfather and who was talking to him in a babytalk 
voice. Its quite interesting that he DOESN'T try to kill her, just 
hurt her. If Harry shows an interest in learning Crucio or going 
around doing it to animals or other, less important enemies, then I 
can see a reason to worry.

>>As for Harry having the great heart and Tom Riddle didn't -- I 
wonder if Harry didn't know his parents AT ALL and his mom didn't die 
to save him, he would have been even more similar to Tom Riddle. What 
do you think?<<

Well, if he still was raised by the Dursleys, I don't think he would 
have been much different. He grew up knowing NOTHING about his 
parents and thinking their death was an accident, and in his first 
year he still goes off to save Hermione from the troll and is still 
determined to save the stone from Voldemort. I think the difference 
in his personality would have been if he DID know his parents and was 
raised by them-then he might have had a personality more like James 
(*might* have, because he'd still have Lily as a mother), and James 
didn't turn out *evil*.