[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry, Hermione, Sirius, and the Dream, 2-way mirror

[annegirl11 at juno.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 116914

Juli said:
> When I first read OoP I almost cried when I learned that 
> Sirius was been held prisioner by Voldemort. 

Me too. *Horror* doesn't begin to describe it, and I wasn't even a R/S
shipper then. I was on the fence as to whether or not it was a fake, but
when Harry ignored Hermione and rushed headlong into the fray, things
seemed suspecious. If he's going to take on adult responsibilities like
heroism, he needs to have more emotional maturity; otherwise, he needs to
let the adults handle things.

> Besides Hermione shouldn't have said that LV trusted Harry's saving 
> people's thing, it was extremely rude.

She may have been going for tough love. This was the fifth time Harry has
almost gotten himself killed by taking something huge on his shoulders. I
think Hermione was 100% correct, but in retrospect, she probably could
have picked a better tactic. Though, honestly, I don't know what it could
have been. "The vision isn't real" didn't work, "We should talk to
someone first" didn't work. What was left but the truth, that Harry was
rushing headlong b/c of his hero complex?


Side note: WHY WHY WHY didn't Hermione talk to Snape?! He was right
there, in the castle, 5 minutes away. She may dislike him, but she's got
enough sense to know he's genuinly in the Order. So frustrating!

> Harry doesn't walk around 
> thinking who to save and how to be the hero, when someone he cares 
> for is in danger he inmediately tries to help, it's just who he is. 

It isn't a bad quality, in and of itself. Harry *is* a hero; it's his
job, as a character. But it needs to be tempered with responsibility and
emotional restraint (which no one has taught him <grumbling at DD's
irresponsibilty>). This has been dealt with in Buffy, about another
schoolkid hero; when Buffy got too emotional and didn't listen to her
comrads in arms, people died (I just realized that season 2 bears a
striking resemblance to OOtP). As she got older, she learned not to get
swept up in drama and panic -- people may be in danger, but as the hero,
she learned how to stop and think before she acts.

This is what bugs me about Harry as hero: Up until OOtP, he's been lucky.
That's it, that's the ONLY reason he's still alive to be called a hero.
Buffy was 16-going-on-30, well trained, informed, and supervised when
necesary. Harry is just a kid who happens to get into nasty situations.
In OOtP, he got in over his head, but wouldn't admit it. I agree with
Snape in this respect: DD gives Harry way too much reign to run free.

> On another idea, WHY didn't he open Sirius' package (the 2 way 
> mirror)??

That was just ... bad writing. Sorry, but, that was rediculous. I don't
think JKR meant to taunt us with, "oh, the irony! he could have saved
Sirius!" or to trivialize Sirius' death by showing us that it could have
been easily averted. But that's how it came off. FWIW, she's said that 1)
the mirror probably wouldn't have helped as much as we think it would and
2) aluded to a magical device important in the next book that is better
than cell phones, so I suppose the mirror will be it. So it was
introduced because it'll be important later. 

> Forgive me but I still can't deal with Sirius' death.

:-/ I know, I know, I can't believe I'm this attached to him, either. He
wasn't perfect, it's debatable that he was a good influence, but he and
Harry were immediatly close because they *needed* each other. I feel like
Sirius was cut down in the middle of his character arc, and given time
and healing (and the love of a good werewolf), he could have become so
much more than who he was before he died. The distance between who he was
as a boy -- a brilliant student, mischevous but I don't belive he was
malevolent, a loyal friend, and later an important member of the Order --
and who he became just . . . sucks. A lot. Worse is that it's so
realistic, in the way that life is really unfair and doesn't tie off in a
nice, balanced character arc.

Aura

~*~
"You said I killed you - haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their
murderers, I believe. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad!
Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!"
--Wuthering Heights
http://archive.skyehawke.com/authors.php?no=606