Imperius Resistance and Occlumency was Harry's anger (was Re: Draco's anger.)

[festuco]

No: HPFGUIDX 122825


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "eggplant9998"
<eggplant9998 at y...> wrote:

> As for these wonderful lessons everybody is talking about, the ones
> that let a teacher get deep inside your head, are being taught by
> somebody you do not trust! Oh and one more little thing, the lessons
> make you feel terrible and DO NOT WORK; it's worse, the lessons are
> counterproductive, they actually make you weaker. You complain about
> this again and again up to the very end of your adventure but
> receive no satisfactory explanation for this, or an explanation of
> any sort for that matter. You are just ignored.

Gerry:
OoF Chapter 24: Occlumency p. 478-479 (Bloomsbury Edition)"
'Hermione told me to come and check up on you,' said Ron in a low
voice, helping Harry to his feet. 'She says your defenses will be low
at the moment, after Snape has been fiddling around with your mind ...
still, I suppose it'll help in the long run, won't it?

JKR interview
(http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2003/0302-newsround-mzimba.htm)
JKR: Absolutely right, I find that all the time in the book, if you
need to tell your readers something just put it in her. There are only
two characters that you can put it convincingly into their dialogue.
One is Hermione, the other is Dumbledore. In both cases you accept,
it's plausible that they have, well Dumbledore knows pretty much
everything anyway, but that Hermione has read it somewhere. So, she's
handy.

Well, for me as a reader it is easy to assume Hermione read up on
Occlumency, and found this out. It is also easy for me to assume that
other wizards, like Lupin and Sirius know a bit more about Occlumency
than Harry, so they won't take his complaints seriously. Notice that
Harry does nothing to find more about Occlumency, he just has this
nice, convenient theory and sticks to it.

I found Harry where Occlumency was concerned behaving like a five year
old. At eleven he was more mature than here at fifteen.

Eggplant:
> I have never even hinted that Voldemort is not an enemy, as for
> Snape, he should certainly be treated as an enemy for the purposes
> of the Occlumency lessons and I think even Snape and Dumbledore
> would agree with that.

Following your logic, Harry could also poison Snape's food, attack him
in the corridor or put him into the vanishing cabinet. Or, if you want
to restrict his resistance to the lessons itself borrow Hagrid's
crossbow and take a shot at him the moment he enters his office. They
could all work, and they really would make it hard for Snape to enter
his mind. No Occlumency involved. Now he only has to learn how to keep
LV out of his mind. There seems to be a skill for it, Occlumency I
believe. Maybe it is a good idea if he would learn that....

OoP Bloomsbure Edition p. 458: 'Occlumency Potter, the magical defense
of the mind against external penetration. An obscure branch of magic,
but a highly useful one.'

Eggplant:
> Harry already knew that, but he couldn't see the urgency and at the
> time neither could we the readers because as Harry said it may not be
> much fun but without it Mr. Weasley would be dead. Nobody explained
> exactly why it was important, they just said it was.

Well, this reader easily could see the importance. I really, really
could not understand that Harry was such a complete idiot here. He has
all the clues, he has all the information needed. The only thing he
needed to do was put it together, and for once in his life trust that
others might know what they were talking about, even if he did not agree.

The only reason I could come up with for him to be this idiotic is
that he was so cock-sure that nobody, not even LV would be able to
trick Harry Potter, and so all these fears of the grownups had no
basis in reality at all. Of course he knew far better what LV was
capable of than the people who lived through is reign and fought him.
Well, he learned the hard way that he had been really, really stupid.

Gerry