[HPforGrownups] Re: JKR's dealing with emotions - Talking about Death

[Kemper]

No: HPFGUIDX 147520

On 2/2/06, Shaun Hately <drednort at alphalink.com.au> wrote:
>
> On 2 Feb 2006 at 17:33, Kemper wrote:
>
> > But a question to those who've expressed similar losses at similar
> ages:  isn't
> > Harry supposed to have this great depth of Love, more so than any other
> > Witch or Wizard and presumably much more then any of us Muggles and
> Squibs.
> > I don't mean to discount anyone's loss.  I, too, have suffered.  But
> Harry
> > is not one of us, he's not an Everyman (Ron is), Harry is a Hero.  With
> so
> > much Love, you'd think Harry would experience loss to a
> > heightened degree.
>
> Shaun:
>
> Seriously, I don't see any evidence in the novels that Harry has
> a great 'depth of love' in the sense that he himself is somehow
> unusually capable of love.
>
> "'"Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort
> cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as
> powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a
> scar, no visible sign... to have been loved so deeply, even
> though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some
> protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of
> hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort,
> could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a
> person marked by something so good.'"
>
> (PS, )
>
> Note - "that love as powerful as your mother's for you."
>
> "to have been loved so deeply."
>
> What is special in Harry Potter isn't his capacity for love,
> isn't his expression of love, isn't his feelings of love.
>
> What is special in Harry Potter isn't the fact that he loves. It
> is the fact that he was loved - and that's very different.
>
> There's no reason to suppose that I can see that Harry loves at
> all unusually deeply or intensely, or anything like that. I think
> he has about the same capacity for love as any normal person.


...
..

Kemper now:

>From HBP23



Harry: But I haven't got uncommon skill or power

Dumbledore: Yes, you have.  You have a power Voldemort has never had. You
can—

Harry: I know! I can love! (refraining from saying Big Deal!)

Dumbledore: Yes Harry, you can love.  Which, given everything that has
happened to you, is a great and remarkable thing. Your are still too young
to understand how unusual you are, Harry.

Harry: So, when the prophecy says that I'll have 'power the Dark Lord know
not,' it just means – love?

Dumbledore: Yes – just love.





Dumbledore seems to believe Harry's love is uncommon, in a great and
remarkable way.  Much more so than all others.  So if we are to see Harry as
Dumbledore sees him then it would seem that Harry is 'somehow unusually
capable of love.'



What do you mean when you say Harry was loved?  I'm assuming you are
suggesting that his Love power comes from Lily's death, but I could be
wrong.  However, if not… Lily's love protection seemed to have lost a bit of
its potency after the Dark Lord's resurrection.



-Kemper


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