Harry Killing in HBP (was re: Violence)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 131856

Tonks wrote:

> 
> Following this, I don't think that Harry just killing LV is the 
> answer.  And I think that JKR is not going to go there.  As I said 
> before, she worked for Amnesty and one can learn a lot about the 
> evils that are inflicted on one human by another or by one society 
> by another by working for Amnesty International.  I just know in my 
> heart that there is a better way.  What I don't know is how that 
can 
> play out once we leave the ivory tower of philosophical speculation 
> and walk out into the street to meet the mugger or axe murder who 
> may be waiting for us there.  I just don't know the answer, but I 
> know the one we have it not the best.
> 



Well, okay.  That is certainly a possibility that JKR doesn't want 
Harry to "just kill" Voldemort.  In fact, I would say it's almost a 
certainty, in that Harry won't go up to Voldemort and say "Hi 
Voldie.  Oh, by the way Avada Kedavra!"  Any killing of Voldemort 
will certainly be more of a dramatic situation.

But will Harry kill Voldemort at all?  And after all, what difference 
does it really make HOW he kills Voldy?  Avada Kedavra, Magnum .357, 
stupefy spell and dropping him out the window, filling him with love 
and watching him melt like the Wicked Witch of the West, all of it is 
ultimately the same.  Voldy will be dead and Harry will have killed 
him.  

Now, perhaps a more interesting question is will Harry have to kill 
anyone else?  This is a war, after all, and Harry is a prime target.  
It is very plausible that Harry might have to kill in self-defense 
long before the final confrontation with Voldy (and indeed, he 
already has, if not deliberately).  I could easily see that the big 
hook at the end of HBP, the one that "some won't like" is that Harry 
will be forced to kill someone, perhaps Malfoy, Sr., while protecting 
himself and Dumbledore, or perhaps after Dumbledore's death.  Thus he 
will have the summer to stew on that, and to prepare himself for what 
is to come.

In fact, that would provide a great deal of symmetry, wouldn't it?  
At the end of OOTP, Harry sees death inflicted on a loved one.  At 
the end of HBP, Harry inflicts death on someone else's loved one.

What an interesting set up that would be!  Draco melting down in 
murderous rage in the wake of his father's death.  Dumbledore 
possibly gone.  And Snape, what about Snape?  He certainly would have 
no scruples about killing in such a situation.  Indeed, can't you see 
him now, standing nearby with his "cover" blown screaming at 
Harry, "Kill him you weak-willed brat!"

So the relationships grow more tangled.  Draco bound to Harry by 
hatred over the fact that Harry has killed his father.  Harry's hate 
of Snape now intensified by yet more guilt.  Snape's hatred of Harry 
now matched with equal parts cold satisfaction (the brat is capable 
of killing) and dread (the brat is capable of KILLING).

Oh, yes, what a delicious ending for HBP that would be!


Lupinlore