Harry and James - only skin deep (was:Bullying WAS: Re: Prodigal Sons)

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 141213


>>Valky:
> > <snip>
> > Harry was fundamentally against the Dark Arts at eleven, and he is
> > told so often how *like his father* he is.
> > <snip>
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Is Harry *really* so like his father?  I don't think so.  I think 
> Harry *looks* like his father, and he enjoys flying, but beyond that 
> I think they're shown to be completely different people. 

Valky:
I don't agree with that at all. There has got to be at least a dozen
passages in which someone who knew James well says to Harry he speaks
like James or thinks like James or does something James would do
(other than flying). 
One example I can think of is in HBP when Dumbledore tells Harry he
has just 'Spoken like your mother and fathers son and Sirius true
godson.' but that is surely not the least of them. In POA there are a
fair few comments about it and isn't there a remark about Harry
showing mercy to Pettigrew and how it was James-like, I am also fairly
sure that in GOF and early in OOtP it gets mentioned too. I'd love to
find all the quotes but that will have to wait for now. It might just
take too long.



Betsy:
> In fact, I 
> think if some sort of weird time warp happened and PS/SS Harry met 
> up with an eleven year old James while shopping for school robes the 
> two boys would not hit it off.  James would annoy Harry by prattling 
> on about how he was going to get his parents to buy him a broom and 
> sneak it onto campus, school rules be damned. 

Valky:
Well yeah it's not beyond reason that James would want to sneak a
broomstick into school, but there's no proof that James is spoiled to
the point where he'd be telling his parents what to do. Sirius speaks
very highly of the Potters, and says they adopted him as a second son,
it just seems a leap to be thinking that JKR sketched them in the
image of the Malfoys or the Dursleys.


Betsy:
> And maybe he'd talk 
> about how he hoped he got into Gryffindor.  And perhaps he share a 
> funny story he'd heard about Hagrid when Hagrid came to fetch 
> Harry. 

Valky:
Hmm that's all possible too, but what could James, who befriended
Peter Pettigrew, really say that was so offensive about Hagrid, who
also became one of his trusted friends.
 

Betsy:
> And then he'd cap it all off by asking Harry what sort of 
> magic his parents liked to practice (not wanting to associate with 
> dirty Dark Magic users). <beg> 

Valky:
LOL, that is funny, but it's against canon, he can't very well have
had those kind of prejudices against people and befriend Sirius. James
obviously didn't base anything on the parents of people he met, that
Sirius was James best friend is irrefutable proof that he was
interested in the person themselves no matter where they came from.

I'll admit I can imagine James boasting a bit like Draco did in Madam
Malkins, but they most definitely would not have been the same boy in
different skin.
 
> Betsy Hp, going for short

Good idea Betsy. That was so much less tiring.
Valky