Choosing sides

[anna_ktrn]

No: HPFGUIDX 118720



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Barry Arrowsmith <arrowsmithbt at b...> 
wrote:

> Kneasy:
 
> If, for example, Vernon had been the exact opposite of what he 
> is, if Harry had come to like, even love and respect him, and Vernon 
> had then advised him not to take up the invitation to Hogwarts DD would 
> have been in a pretty pickle. And even if he did make the choice to 
> step into a total unknown, would he have had the necessary 
> self-reliance and resilience to be successful? Probably not IMO.

Whyever not? What sets Harry apart from other Muggle-borns who manage just 
fine? I see no indication anywhere that a rotten childhood in the Muggle 
world is a prerequisite to love Hogwarts. 

> Some may point to Hermione in a counter argument; here's a Muggle-born 
> who jumped at the chance of  switching  worlds. I'm not so sure about 
> her motives. Remember that in the first part of PS/SS she's not very 
> nice at all, a positive pain in the neck in fact. Little miss bossy 
> boots, Hectoring!Hermione. 

Not all of Hogwarts's Muggle-born students are as socially awkward, as 
Hermione used to be. She switched worlds because she got the letter, and 
realized that she is a witch. What more reasons do any of the Muggle-borns 
have?
 
> Well, there's another "what if" right here. What if Malfoy hadn't been 
> in M. Malkin's emporium? Harry wouldn't have asked Hagrid about 
> Slytherin and he probably wouldn't have been so adamant about not being 
> sorted into it by the Hat. Or what if Harry had told Draco his name? 
> Draco seems quite keen to recruit Harry into his circle once he does 
> find out who he is. There's quite a reasonable argument in asserting 
> that a chance encounter was influential in Harry choosing sides.

Well, Draco told Harry about the right and wrong kind of wizards with Ron 
Weasley standing next to Harry. That Harry met Ron, and that they got on 
well on the train, seemed more significant to me than that Harry had seen 
Draco previously. When Harry refused Draco's offer, I took it for a sign 
of Harry's loyalty for people he likes, not so much as rejection of Draco. 
But I agree about the Sorting Hat. Harry was sorted after Draco was 
already sorted into Slytherin, and of course Harry didn't want to be in 
the same house as this snobbish boy. Not after Minerva McGoganall had 
given them her rousing speech about their houses being their families. I 
find it somewhat hard to imagine that Harry didn't want to be in 
Slytherin, because he feared to become a DE or to be among prospective 
DEs. Despite Hagrid's explanation his picture about DEs can't have been 
more than fuzzy. 
 
> But not satisfied with that, Jo works it a third time - Snape. If that  
> first Potions lesson had gone differently - what? Being the sort of 
> teacher ole Sevvy is it's unlikely that Harry would ever actually like 
> him, but it probably wouldn't have degenerated into outright hate. 

Indeed, I've always thought that Snape set the pattern for their mutual 
antagonism that very first day. But I don't quite see how that pertains to 
your argument. Everybody is shaped by experiences and will ineract with 
others accordingly. That does not eliminate the ability to chose. 

> The choices made from now on really will show what he's made of.

There are clues to that in all five books already. Harry does not sit 
passively around. His choices may be gut reactions most of the time, but 
they are choices nontheless. Highlighting, if nothing else, that he is not 
an analytical kind of person. 

Anna, still newbie