Harsh Morality - Combined answers

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 121090


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
> ( big snip)
> Tonks wrote:
> "The black and white ending.. is the ending that we are told God 
will judge each of us by at the end of our life. Only one.. the one 
that JKR has mentioned over and over... LOVE."
> 
> Del replies:
> That's interesting, but I fail to see how this applies to the
> Potterverse. Love doesn't seem to me to be a leading principle in 
the WW, far from it. And I know that Harry is supposed to be full of 
love, but I just don't *see* that.
> Could you elaborate on this, or refer me to a past post on that 
subject?
> 
> Tonks wrote:
> "We are told that Lord Voldmort... Never loved... this is what 
makes him the evil principle."
> 
> Del replies:
> Whenever I think of this, I get stuck into a logic trap. If LV 
never loved, that means he was always evil, which in turn means he 
was born evil. But JKR said that nobody is born evil. So I'm 
confused. Can you help me out?
> 

Tonks here:

Love is a repeated theme in the books starting from book 1. It was 
Harry's mother's love that saved him. DD repeatedly shows that love 
is very important. It is in Harry's very skin and why LV can not 
touch him without pain. JKR does not always hit us over the head 
with it, because her writing is meant IMO to be subliminal in some 
of its teaching. The ancient magic has to do with Love as well, I 
think we are not told it directly... but indirectly... in many small 
ways.

As to your second statement. That is quite a leap from someone never 
loving another person to saying that they are therefore born evil. I 
don't follow that logic at all.  Look at it this way. From a 
Christian perspective which we know JKR is, God created human beings 
and in so doing, He created them as good. When He was finished with 
all that he created the bible tell us that He looked it all over and 
it was good. Therefore no one is born evil. (Yes there is the 
teaching about original sin, but sin and evil are not exactly the 
same. Sin is separation. I think evil is something else 
altogether.)  It is the teaching of the church and I believe JKR 
point as well that it is our choices that determine what we become.  
SO here is the logic here: born good,  free will to choose ones own 
course, fully understanding the choice and choosing to do what is 
unloving and against the law (ancient magic) of Love = evil.  The 
evil did not come first. Good came first, was corrupted by free 
choice, and not just one choice, but a series of choices, knowingly 
(this is an important point) making the choice time and again, 
without repentance... Tom Riddle became Lord Voldemort bit by bit 
over time... through a series of conscious deliberate choices.

Tonks_OP