Sportsmanship in Harry Potter

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 151818

As some members have found on the OT group, there seem to be problems with Yahoo 
and I couldn't get onto HPFGU at all last night so, when I came onto the group at 07:30 
this morning there were about 50 overnight messages. I hope I can catch up with some of 
the thoughts which have been surfacing in this thread - which seems to be dominating the 
leader board at the moment - without repeating too many thoughts,

A little while ago, I commented on another thread that I was getting a trifle annoyed with 
the polarised stands being adopted by some members of the group. On the one hand, we 
seem to have a few contributors who are out to "get" Harry for everything and refuse to 
see anything admirable or constructive in his behaviour and on the other, those who 
cannot see him ever stepping out of line. I sometime wonder why the first group don't go 
off and start the IHHPFGU group (I hate Harry potter for Grown-ups). I think the working 
majority of us hopefully lie between the two.

Having got that off my chest :-) I want to just express a few thoughts on one or two things 
which have been mentioned in this thread.

Someone mentioned children wanting to be like Harry Potter. Don't we all hanker after 
being one of our heroes, even as grownups? Some of us might like to be footballers like 
Beckham, astronauts or other famous characters – fictional or real. This may have started 
in our formative years and we carried it over into adulthood with the likelihood of anything 
even like it happening fading with the passage of time. We see perhaps the better side of 
these people – the material success and perhaps their public persona, but not always the 
moments when nothing much happens or when things go off the rails. After all, we don't 
see every day with Harry, when he wasn't winning at Quidditch or losing points because of 
Snape or falling off his broom or wielding Gryffindor's sword. There were days when he 
just went to classes, had meals, chilled out with his friends and generally lived a routine 
existence.

There is a down side to this. As an example, I would look at what was a majoy watershed 
in UK history -  the First World War. when war was declared in 1914, thousands of young 
men went off to enlist in the army with the idea of going off to "beat the Hun" and 
experiencing the glory of battle. after four years, many of them came home, disillusioned, 
jobless, injured. Millions didn't. In spite of what I said in the last paargraph, Harry must 
often ask himself, "Why me? Why couldn't it happen to somebody else?" If he were real, I 
am sure he would want to live a life like his friends, free of the stress of knowing that 
Voldemort was after him.

I personally identify with Harry because he reminds me of myself as a teenager. I was 
considered bright but intellectually lazy; why do homework when you can play Exploding 
Snap or practise for Quidditch? Often uncertain about some situations and bursting with 
unwarranted confidence over others. Yes, adolescence was a roller coaster ride and there 
were days which I would love to re-live and others I would like to wipe completely and 
utterly off the map.

Again, some people have taken umbrage over the suggestion that Harry showed "moral 
fibre" and said "No way. He's never shown any". But I would like to point to just one 
instance that came to my mind where Harry shows altruism, and in my opinion great moral 
fibre. It is surprisingly early when he is still very new to the Wizarding World:

`"Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry said.
The other two stared at him. He was pale and his eyes were glittering.
"I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try to get to the Stone first."
"You're mad!" said Ron.
"You can't!" said Hermione. "After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be 
expelled!"
"SO WHAT?"
Harry shouted. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's 
coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There 
won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten ot or turn it into a school for the 
Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter any more, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave 
you and your families alone if Gryffindor win the House Cup? If I get caught before I can 
get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find 
me there. It's only dying a bit later than I would have done because I'm never going  over 
to the Dark Side! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say is 
going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"
He glared at them.'
(PS "Through the Trapdoor"  pp.196-97 UK edition)

For me, that rates fairly high on the moral fibre scale


Finally, for the moment, someone talked about Harry getting "breaks" and a fellow 
member remarked that was the privilege of heroes.

I wonder how many people in the Real World can attribute their success to getting a 
"break"? Being spotted  by someone who saw their potential and had the power to open 
doors? Ask Daniel Radcliffe about the break which propelled him into fame as Harry in the 
"medium that dare not speak it's name".

Why not ask JKR herself? I seem to recall that there was a break when a publisher accepted  
the "Philosopher's Stone"