Do we believe DD: love is all Harry needs, not the crucios?

saraquel_omphale saraquel_omphale at yahoo.com
Sat Jul 23 12:46:48 UTC 2005


No: HPFGUIDX 134365

2 things stay in my mind about Harry's ability to defeat Voldemort 
(Destroying Horcruxes aside) DD's insistance that Love really is all 
Harry needs, and the tendency Harry has to attempt to use the 
Cruciatus  curse. He first attempted it in OotP against Bellatrix, 
and he tried to use it against Snape twice at the end of HBP.

I've seen more than one post discussing Harry's lack of magical bang 
and how he needs to get some more sophisticated magic under his 
belt.  But I think JKR has deliberately given Harry fairly ordinary 
wizarding powers and I don't think that that's going to magically 
change now (excuse the pun).  Isn't one of the points of the story 
that *real* power is not about external things, but about something 
we are all equally endowed with, the ability to love.

DD insists on reinforcing this to Harry, (UK Ed, Ch23 p476)against 
Harry's scepticism.  But I really do think, that if we want to work 
out what's going to happen, then this is absolutely central.  IMO, 
legilimancy, occlumency, potions etc etc are not what it is about.

Bringing in the second thread of Harry's temptation to use the 
Crucio curse.  Snape tells him and shows him, that his attempts here 
are never going to work. p 562/3  They are only going to work if 
Harry, in effect, masters the essential skills of being a dark 
wizard. (Occlumency, nvbl skills and the real desire to torture and 
inflict pain. Although I admit the first 2 are useful on both 
sides.) 

This is Harry's temptation, this is what that connection to 
Voldemort through his scar is also about. Whether we assume that 
Harry has a part of Voldemort's soul in himself or not, there is a 
real connection between them. I think his desire to cause pain and 
get revenge using the cruciatus curse will be the thing that will 
nourish the part of Voldemort that is in/connected to Harry. (As 
Ginny did with Diary!Tom Horcrux in COS) If Harry feeds his dark 
side, this will only strengthen Voldemort through the scar. 
Ultimately, Harry has to conquer the evil/dark tendencies within 
himself in order to conquer Voldemort, and that means not succumbing 
to revenge and the desire to use the cruciatus curse.  Ultimately, 
it does not involve bang magic ability. Last year I remember posting 
that I thought the last scene of book 7 would take place in 
the 'Love" room in the MOM, and that basically, LV would destroy 
himself because of his inability to cope with love (or something 
like that) If anything, HBP has strengthened this idea for me. 

As a last point, I also found the lesson of Ron and the Felix 
Felicis interesting. Basically, what it said to me was that the 
human mind is stronger than magic, because it can do exactly what 
magic can do even without the bangs and whistles.  I think the Felix 
Felicis episode is probably deeply significant in forshadowing 
Voldemort's defeat.  IMO What Harry needs is not more powerful 
spells, but absolute faith in himself and his ability to love. 

Saraquel
"He had never seen a wizard work things out like this, simply by 
looking and touching: but Harry had long since learned that bangs 
and smoke were more often the marks of ineptitude than expertise"






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