Harry mastering his emotions in HPB (was: Plot in OotP)

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 118153


Alla:
> > I confess though as much as I loved OOP, Jo comments about 
> > Harry "mastering his emotions" in HBP bothered me very very much.
> > 
> > So, my question is - do you think that she will do believable 
> > transition in his emotions again? You know, not glossing over his 
> > grief and pain, following up on what Dursleys did to him. etc.?
> > 
> > If OOP is indeed Harry's darkest hour, HBP just cannot become 
> > his "shiny hour" right away, it has to be dark at least for a 
> > while, IMO.
 
Annemehr:
> Well, I'm not worried. After GoF, I worried that Harry would not be
> affected enough in the next book; that he would continue too much 
> the same as he always had.  When OoP came out I saw that I was 
> worried for nothing.
> 
> It's almost the same situation now.  Harry knows now that he has to
> get control of himself, and why.  He knows that just relying on 
> doing whatever you can think of, and on luck, and on help coming 
> just in time, in a crisis is not enough.  He also knows that 
> letting his emotions rule him had terrible consequences.
>
> I have confidence that Jo will show enough of him working through 
> his guilt feelings and beginning to pull himself together.  Of 
> course, in real life such a thing might take many years, and Jo 
> can't afford to write that way, but I think she'll make it 
> believable.  Of course, Harry is also highly motivated -- he knows 
> he'll have to face Voldemort, he knew that even before he knew the 
> prophecy.


SSSusan:
I agree with this, Annemehr.  I envision rejoining Harry in HBP and 
finding him, by turns, grieving, pissed, guilt-ridden and even 
emotionally "dead"--that vacant, dazed, empty kind of demeanor one 
puts on when attempting to just shut it all down.  

I was one who found Harry's surliness and CAPSLOCKness quite 
believable in OoP.  In fact, I've found JKR's ability to paint 
teenage emotions to be incredibly "accurate" or believable throughout 
the series so far.  Maybe it's my experience as a high school teacher 
and as a junior high school Sunday school leader, but I think she has 
been able to capture both emotional reactions & states and even the 
things which *matter* to kids these ages pretty darn well.  

So I do have faith in her ability to bring Harry 'round from the 
CAPSLOCK!Harry of OoP to a realistic mastering his emotions (most of 
the time) at some point in HBP.  No, I don't expect it right away, 
but I can see it happening as the reality of the seriousness of what 
faces them all really, really sinks in...and as the anger over 
Sirius' death solidifies into resolve to get rid of Voldy.

This is one of the reasons I've proposed before [and taken some grief 
for doing so, I might add :-)] that Harry will manage to find a way 
to work w/ Snape, even if Snape keeps on being a prick.  I think JKR 
will show us a Harry who comes to be ready to really focus on ending 
VoldyWarII.  He may resist for awhile, he may be too upset for 
awhile, but I think he'll come 'round, and I think a part of that 
will mean his KNOWING he'll have to work w/ everyone in the Order, no 
matter his personal feelings and his belief that he's despised by at 
least one of them.

Siriusly Snapey Susan