Dept. of Mysteries, "Love" room.

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 129921

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "eggplant107"
<eggplant107 at h...> wrote:
> "niekycrins" <n.crins at p...> wrote:
> I hope it's more than just love, otherwise the story could get so
> sweet we'd all get diabetes. Love probably has something to do
with it but there must be something more than that because
Dumbledore says it is not only more wonderful than death it is more
terrible too.


Tonks:
"There is no good or evil, only power and those too afraid to use
it." This is what LV believes. That is what Tom Riddle believes. We
can understand, given his history, how Tom could come to that idea.
I think that we can all identify with Tom in his struggles as well
as with Harry in his. Haven't we all at one time or another felt
the type of anger that is rage? Yet most of us, like Harry, have
not acted on that to the extent that we have killed someone. But Tom
has. Tom has let his rage born of his fear of death and his fear of
Love control his life. And see what it has made of him.

To some extent Tom is right. We don't usually look for words of
wisdom from the evil guy, but there is a hint of truth in what he
says. He has chosen the wrong and weaker *power*. There is a
greater power and Tom has been too afraid to use it.

How did Tom become LV? I have a theory about that, and here goes.
There is an ancient magic, this much we know. In this ancient magic
before time and space there were 2 forces. One is the force of pure
Love in its highest form. This is the type of love that C.S. Lewis
refers to as Agape Love. In this ancient magic there was also
another type of force, one that was weaker. The weaker force
appears to be stronger because it is fueled by strong and dangerous
emotions of fear and hate. The stronger force is Love which appears
weaker because it is gentle and kind. Within the force of Love is
something else that is not show to the world often, but is the part
of Love that give it power "at once more wonderful and more terrible
than death
". And this part of Love is self sacrifice and
forgiveness.

There is a saying, I think a quote by one of the Saints, and it goes
like this. "Love and do as you will." This implies something of
the "there is no good or evil only power" idea. The idea is that if
you truly Love with a capital L, then you will not do anything to
harm another living thing. This type of Love is what is in the room
in the MoM.

Back to the second power, the weaker one. I know there are many
different spiritual believes in the members of this group, but lets
use the term *Devil* for a moment just to make the point easier to
illustrate. Let's say there is such an entity as the *Devil* and
the second type of power is his. How would this play out in the
life of Tom Riddle? Given his background it is possible to see Tom
as a teenager who was both afraid of death and of love. One of the
weapons the Devil has is *fear*. It is his most powerful weapon and
he uses it well. He uses it as he whispers in the mind of Tom and
later through Tom to Harry. Hate is also a weapon that the Devil
uses. These two, fear and hate, combined can work within anyone
and does work within Tom Riddle to make him into something that is
the embodiment of the second power and the opposite of Love.

Remember when Lupin (or was it DD?) tells Harry that it is good that
he is only afraid of *fear* itself? That is another way of saying
that there is nothing that can separate us from Love, not even
death. There is nothing to fear, but the idea of fear. I am not
saying this well, but it mean that the only thing to fear is
allowing the feeling of fear to come upon us. As long as we do not
fear we can do anything. As long as we do not fear, the Dark Lord
(by whatever name you know him) can not harm us. Those who practice
real magick have a saying that in order to perform a spell and make
it work you must have "faith without fear". That concept is what is
at work here as well.

The bottom line of what I am saying here is that it is Love that is
the great and powerful weapon in the DoM. It is not the syrupy
sweet love that Eggplant fears it will be. It is a strong,
powerful, dangerous and wonderful Love with a capital L. (Of
course, you all know by now what *Who* I think that really is. And
you also know that I think that this is the message the author has
in mind when writing her books.)

Tonks_op