Mental Discipline in the WW: A Comparison (long)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 130239

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

> I have a question: since I'm lazy and forgetful, I can't remember
any  time afterwards when Sirius' admonitions/warnings/'sabotage' 
recur in Harry's mind.  If so, are we perhaps putting too much
importance upon  it?  If JKR never felt the need to bring it up again 
and thus invoke  it as a cause for Harry's attitude, then it's a bit
of a leap that we're making between the comment and Harry's 
actions. 
<snip>
> I'd agree that Harry's motivation isn't top-par, by any means.  But 
 if Harry never thinks specifically about Sirius' comments again,
who  are we to make them into an item of such grand significance, 
especially above things which actually *do* get multiple mentions
in  the text?

Pippin:
Hmmm...."not knowing how" doesn't get a lot of mention in the text 
either,does it? 

Seems to me the multiple mentions are on Harry not *wanting*
to clear his mind and on the fact that despite Harry apparently doing 
what he is asked to do over the first few lessons, he finds his 
sensitivity  to Voldemort  increasing -- something he *never* 
tells Snape.

But Harry does *not* get more sensitive to _Snape's_ intrusions.The
memories Snape is able to access are less and less important to 
Harry as the lessons progress until finally Snape is only dredging up
"a stream of very early memories [Harry] had not even realized
he still had" and the memory of the dream about the darkened room
which Harry had tried to "push..to the back of his mind." 

When Snape then tries for the memories Harry *knows* he doesn't 
want Snape to see, Harry keeps his awareness and is able to
consciously fend Snape off. He's learned it, by George   -- but 
it doesn't keep Voldemort out, as the Dark Lord triumphantly 
demonstrates by sending a broad daylight vision of the corridor 
into Harry's mind. 

Snape observes this-- that Harry can block him but not Voldemort,
and jumps to the conclusion that Harry isn't trying. *That* was his
big mistake, IMO, and if he wasn't so down on Harry he might have
seen it -- but I don't think his technique was at fault, just his 
general attitude towards Harry. 

The significance of Sirius's warning is that it lent  gravity to 
Ron's suggestion that Snape might be sabotaging the lessons,
which Harry tried to use as an excuse for his failure. 

I have been thinking about JKR's remark that 'destiny' is just a 
word we use when a choice has dramatic consequences, and 
thinking that she may have a similar opinion about 'heroism'
and 'villainy' or even 'good' and 'evil.' In other words, would
we care so much about who was at fault for the failure of
the lessons if Sirius hadn't died? 

Pippin