Harry's flaws and moral errors? was: Apologies and responsibility

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 139321

Instead of arguing morality, maturity, or getting bogged down in that
morass, I'm going to try to just stick to a couple of canon points
here:

<Harry could have chosen to fire it in response to something as little
as a taunt, instead of an Unforgiveable Curse.>

This is closer to canon than what Rita Skeeter wrote about Harry was
to Harry in reality, but it still isn't canon. Canon states, not
what Harry *could* have done, and didn't, but that when Harry found
Malfoy crying in MM's bathroom, someplace he wasn't supposed to
be, either, Malfoy (in apparent embarassment and anger) attacked Harry
first: he pulled out his wand first and cast the first hex. They
duelled, with the spells failing to land and getting more serious,
until Harry slipped and fell to the floor (because of pouring water
from the cistern their duel had smashed) and heard Draco's
"Cruci—", a spell he was all too familiar with (and one
punishable by imprisonment, to boot). Harry, in a somewhat desperate
situation (falling down and duelling from the floor not being an
advantageous position), used the spell from the book that has been so
helpful (and not at all harmful) to him all year.

<Whether or not it was just a student's notes, Harry had no idea what
it was capable of or if there was a cure for it at all. I can't fathom
how someone, even at the age of 16, even in a world with advanced
healing, could ever see something labelled 'for enemies' and have
their first urge be to use it and see what it does.>

See my previous paragraph, and furthermore, "have their *first
urge* (emphasis mine) be to use it and see what it does" is, IMO,
edging back up to Rita Skeeter's level of realistic reportage
again; canon says that at *least* two weeks passes between Harry
reading the spell in the Potions textbook and his using it; Apparition
practice in the village and the Apparition test both take place, and
they are separated by a "fortnight." (Reference chapters
21-24.)

Sandy aka msbeadsley, beginning to think that Lady Indigo, as someone
closer to the age of the ostensible target audience than many here,
actually has some pretty salient points to make about how worrisome
Harry's slow rise in some regards to the challenge is proving; us old
farts may just be jaded and therefore somewhat lackadaisically
convinced that he will figure it all out, because experience has shown
us that youth always does, eventually...