[HPforGrownups] Re: Harsh Morality - Combined answers

[Janet Anderson]

No: HPFGUIDX 121116

*snips really excellent discussion of Dumbledore*

>When Harry was destroying Dumbledore's possessions, what
>he really wanted to break was himself. He wanted to get rid of
>his inner goodness, because that is what made him feel pain
>when bad things happened to others. From Dumbledore's/JKR's
>point of view, anyone  who is still capable of feeling that pain and
>responding to it  is not wholly evil. But it is possible, in the
>Potterverse, to destroy that capacity or to utterly deny it. That
>denial, I think, was Voldemort's last act as a human being.

Do you know what I thought when reading this?  This is the most reasonable 
explanation I have heard yet of why Draco might be redeemable.  If he were a 
second Tom Riddle he wouldn't care about his father or anyone else being in 
Azkaban except insofar as it affected him or his plans.  (And in fact Draco 
does have something Tom Riddle didn't have -- something even Dudley has -- 
i.e., parents who care about him, whatever faults said parents may have.  
Maybe that'll make the difference.)


Janet Anderson