Last Judgement Love - Was (Re: No AKs )

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 137469

D.:
> This sounds all beautiful and all, but somehow I just can't see
> Harry being all that beautiful as a person, despite his 
> extraodinary power is supposed to be *love*.  Yup I'm just not
> convinced at all Harry is that great. So far in the book Harry has
> shown extremely limited capacity of "love" for those who are
> unlovable (or those who are not nice to him). Harry is just no
> Dumbledore. Harry is just an everyman, his capacity of love was,
> to quote Harry, BIG DEAL!  

> Really, I can't see how JKR can pull this "love power" thing
> through the everyman Harry other than your cliche mushy 'all those
> who loves me stand behind me to combine our collective super love
> power to strike final blow to the lonely unlovable villain' way.
> And yeah some people do find that so moving, interesting and 
> dramatic...
> 
> Agape? Harry?...whatever.... 

Jen: Not everyone is impressed with Dumbledore's assertion that 
Harry's power and protection is his ability to love. It seems like a 
pretty dubious ability in the face of a well-placed AK.
 
I'm wondering if Dumbledore means something a bit more magical when 
he says Harry's power is his ability to love. What if he's not 
referring to love in Harry's day-to-day actions or his 'saving 
people thing' or even Agape love, but is instead referring to a 
magical transformation which took place when Lily's loving sacrifice 
clashed with Voldemort's evil curse and both came to reside in not 
only Harry's blood, but in his very skin? 

Dumbledore considers Harry remarkable because by wizarding world 
standards, he shouldn't be the wizard he grew to become. Harry was 
cursed by the most evil wizard ever, who not only transferred powers 
to Harry but marked him with the evil curse as well. Then on the 
heels of that event, Harry was cruelly denied his magical heritage 
for 11 years. At Hogwarts, Harry was touched by evil hands, spent 
time in the Chamber of Secrets, was targeted and sucked by 
Dementors, forced to give up his blood for Voldemort's re-birthing 
and ultimately possessed by Voldemort. Yet he remains pure. It must 
be amazing in the WW to be touched by evil so frequently and even 
possessed by it, but never drawn to it. 
 
Dumbledore really hammers these ideas in the Horcrux chapter, but 
one description particularly stands out for me: "It is Voldemort's 
fault that you were able to see into his thoughts, his ambitions, 
that you even understand the snakelike language in which he gives 
orders, and yet, Harry, despite your privileged insight into 
Voldemort's world (which, incidentally, is a gift any Death Eater 
would kill to have), you have never been seduced by the Dark Arts, 
never, even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one 
of Voldemort's followers. (chap. 23, p. 511, US).
 
Harry does not have to be supremely magically powerful, or perfectly
behaved, for his untarnished soul to cause the demise of Voldemort.
Voldemort seems to be taking care of that part himself :). Each time
he attempts to thwart or kill Harry by deeply evil means, the
rejection seems to increase Harry's 'ability to love' in the sense
that he grows more & more able to repel Voldemort. He's basically 
got Voldemort on the run at the moment, wounded by his attempt to 
possess him, practicing Occlumency against him--the most feared evil 
wizard *ever* hiding from Harry!

Harry also seems to increases in his ability to draw magical help to 
himself, and not always in the form of a more skilled wizard, 
either. He was completely alone in the graveyard and still managed 
to escape because both the Phoenix song and the mere *echos* of 
Voldemort's victims were drawn to help him. Contrast that with the 
ambiguously loyal DE's helping Voldemort that night. 

And I don't think this denies Harry's choice in the matter, either. 
He could choose to run away from Voldemort, and be hunted down, but 
his protection would not be nearly so powerful as it has grown over 
the years as he defies Voldemort again and again. 

Jen