The importance of death /Harry and Cedric

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 147347

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "susanbones2003" <rkdas at c...> 
wrote:
>
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Karen Chuplis <kchuplis at a...> 
> wrote:

Karen:
> > I think that speaks so strongly of deep grief precisely because 
> she 
> > doesn't say "Harry wept by the lake in deep grief over the loss 
of 
> > Sirius". Instead, she just tosses in a gesture. "wiping his face 
> on his 
> > sleeve as he went". It's such a deep thing. SNIPPED>
 
Jen:
> You can not imagine how this little throw-away bit tore at my heart 
> when I first read it. As you said it was a such a small thing. No 
> huge signposts, no self-serving scenes that manipulate you. Just 
> quiet words that demonstrate so much more. 
 
Karen:
> How many times have we seen a child wiping 
> > their face on their sleeve at a hurt? It's outstanding and if you 
> don't 
> > see Harry as deeply grieving then I think maybe you are missing 
> these 
> > small types of gestures in OoTP and in HBP.

Geoff:
I also find this very moving being a male who grew up in the "boys 
don't cry" era. I can remember a little over twenty years ago when my 
mother died having to confide six months later in a close friend that 
I was worried because I didn't feel that I had grieved for her.

But the piece of writing which always gets to me on this issue is:

'The thing against which he had been fighting on and off ever since 
he had come out of the maze was threatening to overpower him. He 
could feel a burning, prickling feeling in the inner corners of his 
eyes. He blinked and stared up at the ceiling.
"It wasn't your fault, Harry," Mrs.Weasley whispered.
"I told him to take the Cup with me," said Harry.
Now the burning feeling was in his throat, too. He wished Ron would 
look away.
Mrs.Weasley set the potion down on the bedside cabinet, bent down and 
put her arms around Harry. He had no memory of ever being hugged like 
this, as though by a mother. The full weight of everything he had 
seen that night seemed to fall in upon him as Mrs.Weasley held him to 
her. His mother's face, his father's voice, the sight of Cedric dead 
on the ground, all started spinning in his head until he could hardly 
bear it, until he was screwing up his face against the howl of misery 
fighting to get out of him.'
(GOF "The Parting of the Ways" pp.619-620 UK edition)

That I know how true can be - fighting to avoid crying and keeping a 
stiff upper lip.