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

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 118174


SSSusan <susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
> 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.


Oh dear.  Well, I suppose that's one way to solve it, but IMO would 
be a very unsatisfactory way indeed.  A thread like Snape's cries out 
for resolution, and I just can't see any way for that to happen 
unless Snape either 1) changes, or 2) dies.  

Granted that this is Harry's story, as I have pointed out myself.  
Still, having Severus be nothing more than an unchanging obstacle, a 
lesson in working with difficult people, would IMO be a huge cop out 
on JKR's part.  Worse, turning Harry into a turn-the-other cheek 
martyr, especially if there is also an emphasis on how both Harry and 
Voldy came from similar childhoods but made different choices, would 
risk turning the whole story into a moral allegory approaching some 
of C.S. Lewis' work.  Now, I have nothing against moral allegory per 
se, and since Lewis was up front about being a Christian Apologist I 
expect it from him, but that kind of turn just doesn't seem, IMO, to 
be very, well, inspired when it comes the HP series.

I grant you all of this is *a* way to bring these issues to a head 
and a close.  But if JKR goes this route it would strike me as -- and 
I know this is a strong word but it really does describe how I would 
feel -- insipid.

Lupinlore