Harry and Love RE:Special treatment of Harry or not WAS

[quick_silver71]

No: HPFGUIDX 146106

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ceridwen" 
<ceridwennight at h...> wrote:

> Ceridwen:
> I agree that it's disappointing that JKR doesn't seem, at this 
point, 
> to regard detention as anything more than a nuisance.  I think, 
> though, that it shows Harry has become more jaded over the years 
> about the things he does that hurt other people.  It's another 
thing 
> he'll have to get over before his meeting with Voldemort.  A jaded 
> attitude, even though it's still only developing, is counter to 
the 
> love that is supposed to be Harry's greatest weapon.  I was 
pleased 
> that he was horrified over what he accidentally did.  He was far 
too 
> loose with his slashing, too.  If he'd just flicked his wand, he 
> would probably not have inflicted such major injuries, IMO.  
> Hopefully, he learned the lesson of not overreacting in a tense 
> situation, something he *will* need later on.
<snip> 
> Ceridwen: (In another post)
> But, kchuplis brought up two scenarios: Blowing up Aunt Marge, and
>slashing Draco. His reaction to the Aunt Marge episode, though not
>as horrible as the Draco episode, got more worry out of him than
>slashing Draco so that the bathroom was awash in blood. That's
>disturbing. Aunt Marge floats away, the Ministry rearranges
>memories, Harry's given a slap on the wrist and not kicked out of 
the
>WW, Aunt Marge is fine if lacking a memory (unfortunately, the WW
>didn't see fit to give her a personality change as well!), and that
>*seems* to carry more weight than buckets of blood? Yes, I would say
>he is becoming jaded. To mishaps, to detention, to what he can get
>away with. And I think that will be another thing, along with his
>capacity for hate, which he'll have to release, probably very early
>in book 7, in order for the love power he has to be able to vanquish
>the Dark Lord.
You've wrote several amazing posts. However I disagree with the idea 
that Harry must let go of habits/traits/whatever else so that he can 
be filled with "love power." I'm not saying that he shouldn't let go 
of those trait
because he must definitely should. It just that I 
feel that "love" is either Harry's must overrated ability or his 
most misunderstood one. The problem, from my point of view, is that 
I don't have a handle on what exactly Harry's love ability is 
supposed to be. 

A lot of people say that Harry's love will fill him up with power, 
deflect AKs, give him the ability to forgive Snape, to find a way to 
have mercy on Voldemort, find a humane (non-AK) way to deal with 
Voldemort, etc, etc. It's just that that's never the feeling I got 
from the books. Harry seems to be relatively normal in his abilities 
to love, maintain relationships, etc (although some would say that 
he's stunted in his ability to love). That, to me, is central about 
Harry
he basically normal in his ability to love
it's not Harry's 
unique ability to love, his greater then average ability to love but 
the mere fact that he can that is important. That is what makes 
Harry different Voldemort
who can't really love
not by the 
definition JK seems to be working with anyway. So basically I don't 
work on the assumption that Harry's abilities to love is special 
compared to Hermione's, Ron's, Neville's, Draco's, etc but that it 
is special compared to Voldemort's.

For me Harry's love is more about it giving him the ability to 
experience love but not only love but also empathy, sympathy, pity, 
mercy
the feelings and abilities that come from being able to love 
(I simplified a bit there). Those are things that Voldemort doesn't 
have and I think that he is poorer because of it. Those are the 
things that I feel make Harry keep on fighting against Voldemort 
(sort of like on the Matrix where Agent Smith asks Neo why he get's 
up to keep fighting). 

That's why I feel that Harry's needs to undergo extensive training 
so that he doesn't have to rely on the Dark Arts to give that extra 
punch in the middle of a battle. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if 
a large part of the final book was spent on the Horcrux hunt because 
it gives Harry and co. such a good chance to learn
both magic and 
about themselves. However I view love as being one component of 
Harry Potter, although it may be a defining component, it is not the 
only component and it does require the support of the other 
components. For all of Dumbledore talk about love I can't help but 
notice that he's always an incredibly wizard as well
so apparently 
love isn't everything.

Quick_Silver