Real child abuse

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 145888

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jim Ferer" <jferer at y...> wrote:
<SNIP>
> 
> It is not Harry's birth, family, or wealth that Dumbledore admires,
> it's Harry himself. And why should he not? Dumbledore believes Harry
> has earned this esteem. I agree.  JKR seems to believe that courage
> and loyalty earn merit, and she's right. And, it pleases me that the
> former headmasters don't speak like bureaucrats. 


Sure.  But there is difference between admiring someone for who they 
are and admiring someone for what they have done -- even though what 
they do manifestly flows from who they are.  Dumbledore himself admits 
this when he notes that "Our choices reveal who we are," -- not, as he 
is often claimed to have said, "Our choices determine who we are."

Dumbledore praises Harry because -- well, first of all he loves the 
kid and therefore will praise him in any case.  But also because Harry 
is a good person.  Not because Harry has slain a basilisk or won a 
tournament or even because Harry has saved someone's life.  He finds 
Harry miraculous not because of what Harry does but because of the 
type of person Harry is.

Indeed, JKR has hinted at this when she talked about Dumbledore's 
attitude toward Harry and Neville.  That is, she has said that 
Voldemort chose Harry because he thought Harry would be the one who 
could threaten him, not Neville.  JKR has informed us that, although 
he of course doesn't come out and say this, Dumbledore agrees that 
Voldemort judged correctly between the two boys, even if they were 
only a year old at the time.

Lupinlore