Harry and Cedric. Was: Re: Snape's stalling

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 116372


I, Del, wrote :
"Personally, I can't quite get over the fact that Harry let his own
jealousy blind him to Cedric's very obvious goodness in GoF."

Alla replied :
"Wow, Del, I know you don't like Harry much and it is your right to do
so,"

Del replies :
Uh, I guess my opinion was worded a bit too strongly. I didn't mean
that I resent Harry or anything, just that when it comes to Harry
misjudging people, Cedric comes to my mind right away because I was
very disappointed with the harsh and totally undeserved treatment
Harry gave him.

Alla wrote :
"but when exactly Harry was blind to Cedric's goodness in GoF? Yes, he
was  a little jealous over Cho. Normal reaction for a teen, don't you
think?

At the same time I think he overcame it quite succesfully, me thinks.
He warned Cedric about dragons, because it was right.

"Harry wouldn't have let his worst enemy face those monsters 
unprepared - well, perhaps Malfoy or Snape...
"It's just...fair, isn't it?" he said to Cedric "We all know... now 
we're on  an even footing, aren't we?" - GoF, p.341."

Del replies :
1. The dragon episode was *before* the Cho incident. Harry was still
quite all right with Cedric at that time.
2. You shot yourself in the foot with that quote. Harry himself says
that he wouldn't have left his wort enemy face the dragons unprepared.
So that doesn't say anything about the way Harry saw Cedric.

Alla wrote : 
"He insisted that Cedric took the Cup with him (if he only knew...)"

Del replies :
That was at the end of the year, when he had realised that Cedric was
a very decent and good guy through and through.

Alla wrote :
"You know, does not look to me at all that Harry was blind to a fact 
that Cedric is a good guy."

Del replies :

Not through the whole year, sure, but it did last several weeks, right
from the moment Harry asked Cho to the Yule Ball and she told him she
was going with Cedric, up to the moment he finally decided to take
Cedric's advice and take a bath with the Golden Egg.

Look at those paragraphs for example.

GoF, ch. The unexpected task, p.347, hardback UK edition
"Completely forgetting about dinner, he walked slowly back up to
Gryffindor Tower, Cho's voice echoing in his ears with every step he
took. 'Cedric - Cedric Diggory.' He had been starting to quite like
Cedric - prepared to overlook the fact that he had once beaten him at
Quidditch, and was handsome, and popular, and nearly everyone's
favourite champion. Now he suddenly realised that Cedric was in fact a
useless pretty-boy who didn't have enough brains to fill an eggcup."

In this paragraph, Harry not only admits that he never quite liked
Diggory for *futile* reasons, but he even allows himself to paint a
totally inaccurate and negative picture of someone who is a totally
decent guy. If he can do that to *Cedric* (the guy who pleaded for a
replay when he realised his team had won while the seeker of the
opposite team was injured, knowing that a replay would most probably
mean a lose for his team), it's quite obvious that he is simply unable
to have an objective opinion of Snape.

Also, I would gladly dismiss this paragraph as just an immediate
reaction to bad news, if Harry hadn't kept his negative image of
Cedric for weeks after that, as shown in this next paragraph :

GoF, ch. Rita Skeeter's scoop, p. 378 Hardback UK edition
"Harry had not forgotten the hint that Cedric had given him, but his 
less-than-friendly feelings towards Cedric just now meant that he was
keen not to accept his help if he could avoid it. In any case, it
seemed to him that if Cedric had really wanted to give Harry a hand,
he would have been a lot more explicit. He, Harry, had told Cedric
exactly what was coming in the first task - and Cedric's idea of a
fair exchange had been to tell Harry to take a bath. Well, he didn't
need that sort of rubbishy help - not from someone who kept walking
down corridors hand in hand with Cho, anyway."

This shows that Harry's thinking can be completely warped by his
emotions, and *remain* that way. That to me clearly indicates that we
simply can't take Harry's interpretation of Snape's actions as the
right one. If Harry can deny such an honest gesture of help as Cedric
did, he can surely interpret anything Snape does as evil.

Alla wrote :
"Just like anybody would have brought Cedric's body to Hogwarts, 
because Cedric's spirit asked him.

I am really really not asking you to like Harry. :) But coudl it be 
that sometimes Harry does very decent things?"

Del replies :
You are being very unfair. I have several times stated positive things
about Harry. If I don't spend my time singing Harry's praise, it's
because there are already a lot of people doing it in this group, so I
don't feel like my voice is needed. But there are significantly less
people pointing out Harry's faults, so I feel my voice is indeed
needed in that area.

Del