my greatest fear....

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 121260


Carol earlier:
<snip> I don't think for a moment that JKR would cheat us with 
> an "it was all a dream" ending, but I am afraid that she'll have
Harry doing something that violates the moral code she seems to be
setting up here, specifically, I'm afraid that she'll have Harry
murder Voldemort with an Unforgiveable Curse. (I don't care that
Voldemort deserves it; I don't want Harry to be stained with the evil
of his enemy's weapons.)
> > 
> 
Lupinlore responded:
> Hmmm.  Well, we know that Voldemort has to die, unless we are being 
> very badly misled indeed by the prophecy.  Why does it matter HOW he 
> dies?  Dead is dead is dead, killing is killing is killing.  Someone 
> killed by LOVE is still as dead as someone killed by AK.
> 
> Are you arguing that it will make some difference for Harry?  I 
> suppose it could, although we are starting to flirt with some 
> problematic plotting here.  Is Harry going to fill himself with love 
> and then kill Voldemort with nothing but love in  his heart?  Is he 
> to feel nothing but love for Voldemort even as he destroys him?  Is 
> he to be like the angel in C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce" who lays 
> hands on the tempting demon and burns it into ash simply with the 
> force of the goodness of his radiant essence?  Okay, I could see 
> that, although I personally would not find it very satisfying as at 
> that moment Harry would transcend his humanity and become something 
> quite unworldly - something that I, personally, could not relate to.
> Others, however, might well see this differently.

Carol again:
Yes, it will make a huge difference for Harry. Remember the terrible
fate of Barty Crouch Sr., who resorted to the use of the enemy's
weapons. Maybe he didn't become wholly evil, as Pippin argues, because
he wanted to make amends at the end, but as far as I can see, he
wasn't forgiven--not by Dumbledore and certainly not by his
irredeemably evil son. (Whether there's a God in JKR's universe who'll
forgive him, I can't say.) We also see what happened to Barty Jr. and
to tom Riddle when they used the Unforgiveable Curses. I don't want
Harry to destroy Voldemort in that way because it would undermine the
system of morality that JKR is setting up, which I fear is *almost* as
black and white as you depict it. It would be like Frodo choosing not
to claim the One Ring but to kill Sauron with it--and succeeding. The
difference is that Harry is much more nearly Voldemort's equal and
could actually succeed in killing his enemy with the enemy's own weapon. 

I agree with you (how unusual :-)) that Harry doing something
unworldly would be hard to relate to. It would also be out of
character. And I have a hard time (like Del) relating Harry to Love as
he's certainly no more loving than any other character and quite
capable of blazing hatred. So where does that leave us? As far as I
can see, with Harry's ability to feel pain and emotion, which
Voldemort can't do, having lost whatever humanity he once possessed.
Somehow the destruction of Voldemort is related to that capacity.

You're right; it's a tricky plot problem. There are lots of wrong ways
to do it, ways that are out of character for Harry or inconsistent
with the morality JKR is building the story around or inconsistent
with the rules that define the WW itself, her "secondary world," to
use Tolkien's term. But I'm trusting JKR to pull it off, or at least
devoutly hoping she will. And meantime, I'll be able to enjoy Book 6
knowing that I don't have to worry about the ending--yet.

Carol, knowing that this was not a satisfactory answer and glad it's
not my job to write the final scene (except for the epilogue) of Book 7