[HPforGrownups] Re: "Some won't like it"

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 129983

Alisha:
<snip>
> What I didn't like about him was his feeling of entitlement.

I suspect that you and I read a number of passages in entirely 
different lights.  I never once thought Harry felt "entitled" to things 
-- that is, he certainly felt he had the right to know certain things 
(which he does), and perhaps a greater right than some other people 
(again, true), but IMO he never felt entitled in the sense of "I'm the 
great Harry Potter, and I should know all things."  His attitude, again 
IMO, was more of the "there are maniacs out there trying to kill me, I 
have very good reason to believe one of them has become immeasurably 
more powerful of late, and no one will tell me *anything*.  Also, I 
have gone through/am going through some pretty horrible things and not 
only will no one explain these things to me, but they all seem to have 
forgotten that they even happened. "

> I don't have my book with me as I'm at work right now, but I got the
> feeling that most of Harry's moodiness stemmed from his attitude
> of "I'm Harry Potter!  I deserve to know these things!"

Again, I think it was more like "I've nearly been murdered at least six 
times in the past four years!  The Dark Lord who is bent on my 
destruction has recently been re-embodied!  I deserve to know what's 
going on because my life is at stake!  Furthermore, I think I've proved 
myself capable of handling knowledge and danger, especially as these 
things always seem so find me whether the adults around me intend it or 
not."  Honestly, I don't see how the adults in Harry's life get off on 
trying to protect him by shielding him from the very things that he 
could use to *defend* himself.  Because, with astonishing regularity, 
Harry *does* have to defend himself on his own.

> My second favorite part of the book (after McGonagall's awesomeness
> in "Careers Advice") was when Phineas Nigellus finally told Harry
> off.

Well . . . I hate to ruin it for you, but what Phineas actually says is:

Ootp, Am. Ed., pg. 496:
***
"[. . .] Have you never paused, while feeling hard-done-by, to note 
that following Dumbledore's orders has never yet led you into harm?"
***
Er . . . well, YEAH.  First, Dumbledore, very, very rarely gives Harry 
direct orders.  As we all know, communication is not his strong point.  
It's hard to give orders to someone you have very little actual contact 
with.  Therefore, I will consider all of the times when Dumbledore's 
actions and misjudgments have cause harm to come to Harry. Dumbledore 
sent Harry to the Dursley's, didn't he?  That certainly led to harm, 
from Harry's perspective.  Dumbledore has allowed Snape's behavior 
against Harry to continue for five years at this point.  Dumbledore put 
Harry in the care of Quirrell and Lockhart, who both tried to 
permanently harm Harry.  Dumbledore also put Harry in the care of 
Fake!Moody, who, as we all know, was plotting to have Harry killed.  
Dumbledore continues to send Harry back to Privet Drive without so much 
as a warning of potential danger, and in OotP Harry gets attacked by 
dementors.  Dumbledore withholds important information from Harry, and 
this -- time and time again -- causes him to endure physical and/or 
emotional hardship.  I really could go on, but I think you get the 
picture.

Therefore, I think it's a bit rich of Phineas to suggest that Harry 
trust Dumbledore's judgment without question.  *Especially* as 
Dumbledore has been playing it even closer to the chest than normal.

Furthermore, if you go back and read the entirely passage, you will see 
that Harry is *happy* when Phineas first says he has a message from 
Dumbledore.  He's not even upset with the order to stay at Grimmauld 
Place.  What Harry reacts negatively to is that the entirety of that 
message is "Stay where you are."  No explanation, no reassurances, 
nothing.  As was the case with the dementor attack on Privet Drive, no 
one is going to tell Harry anything, despite the fact that he knows and 
we know full well that being ignorant isn't going to save him from 
another life-threatening experience.

> Yes, Harry is special.  Yes, he's the only one to have gone through
> what he's gone through.

What he's gone through . . . but also what he's *going* to have to go 
through.  Harry is under no illusions about Voldemort's intentions 
regarding him (even before the revelation of the prophecy).  He *knows* 
something bad is going to happen to him.  He fully realizes that 
someone, somewhere is plotting to do him harm.  And he also has 
*excellent* reason to believe that the adults are incapable of 
shielding him from this harm.  I understand his frustration.  It's like 
he's a fighter -- one who's proven himself time and again -- being 
blindfolded and handcuffed and told to sit quietly while several gunmen 
try to shoot at him and silly people with pieces of tinfoil run about 
trying to deflect the bullets.  His external defenses have been 
*proved* inadequate, and despite the fact that he has shown some 
ability to defend *himself*, he is deprived of the necessary tools to 
do so.

Yeah, I'd be angry too.

> Yes, he did apologize when Ginny called him
> on his idiocy.

I don't think he was being an idiot -- he was sleep-deprived, had just 
gone through severe emotional turmoil, and had just heard a number of 
people who *do* know what's going on discuss the possibility that he 
has been possessed.  Moreover, he has excellent reason to believe this 
might be the case -- what with the dream and the feeling he got when he 
looked at Dumbledore.  I think he had a lot of good evidence to believe 
Moody's interpretation of the events, and if he forgot a little bit of 
negative evidence that occured three years ago in a completely 
unrelated case -- well, I can forgive him.

Furthermore, this might not have any bearing on this particular 
argument, but Ginny was wrong, BTW.  Whether it was because she hadn't 
really been possessed by a real person, or because she was actually 
possessed by Tom Riddle and NOT Voldemort -- her experience of 
possession was completely different than what Harry himself experiences 
at the end of OotP.

Actually, if Harry had thought to remember back to the only *other* 
person he has known to be possessed by Voldy, he might have been able 
to determine the invalidity of Ginny's argument.  Quirrel, for 
instance, did not experience memory loss along with his possession, the 
way Ginny says she did.

I think it was actually Hermione's reasoning and Ron's testament to the 
fact that Harry never left his bed that were the best arguments for why 
Harry, had not, in fact, been possessed.  On the other hand, if Moody 
-- who probably has more experience with the different ways people can 
be possessed -- could still believe that Harry may have been possessed 
. . . well then, I think there probably *was* a possibility that he 
could have been possesed, no matter what Ginny, Hermione, or Ron think 
or say.

> The thing that upset me most about Harry was that,
> after four years of cringing when people looked at his scar and
> wishing that people would stop gawking at him in the corridors and
> putting his name in the paper, he suddenly decides to play the fame
> card.

I really don't think he's playing the "fame card" at ALL.  I'm a bit 
baffled as to how you could have this reading, actually, but . . . 
well, I don't know how to argue against this (other than what I have 
already said), without sounding like I think my reading is 
intrinsically better than yours.

All I can say is -- after four years of *not* playing the fame card, 
why would he suddenly start now?  I don't have time to try to find 
specific references, but I don't think he's any more pleased than he 
has ever been when his fellow students treat him differently because 
he's "Harry Potter".  Even when he's thinking about why he should have 
gotten the prefect position over Ron, he doesn't think about his fame 
-- he thinks about the things he's actually *done*, on his own.  And, I 
might add, he doubts himself.  Despite the fact that his reasoning *is* 
correct (and Dumbledore confirms this in The Lost Prophecy), he still 
can't quite accept it.

(Also, on a side note, when Ron and Hermione get all, "Oh, you silly 
boy, of *course* you can teach DADA -- look at all things you've done!" 
he gets very defensive and argues *aganist* them.  He doesn't think 
he's particularly strong or clever or anything.)

> I know he's been through a lot in the few months before we
> see him in book 5, but I don't see that this particular attitude
> change was well constructed.  Anger in this situation is natural,
> his sudden embrace of "Harry Potter-ness" is not.

*shrugs* If that's your reading, I'm sure there's little I can say to 
change it (I know I have a very hard time accepting other people's POV 
on certain events -- ESE!Lupin, for example), but I thought I'd give it 
a go, anyway. ^_~

Laura
http://www.livejournal.com/users/laurahuntley