What's fun about the HPs?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 152464

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" <horridporrid03 at ...> wrote:

Betsy Hp:
> Have the books soured on me a bit?  They have.  At least, I'm not as 
> fond of the "good guys" as I used to be.  I wouldn't want to hang 
> out with them, and quite a few I'd actively avoid.  I still like 
> Harry, but his darkness has always been a part of his character, and 
> he seems to at least acknowledge when he goes too far.

Geoff:
I don't think that Harry possesses an exceptional darkness.

We ae seeing the "good" characters moving from naïve little First Years 
for whom the Wizarding World is still a place of wonder into middle 
adolescence where their world view is widening and the blacks and 
whites of childhood become the greys of adulthood.

I have often said that I can identify with Harry because I remember my 
own teenage years - sometimes vividly even now.

Can anyone on the group, hands on heart, claim to have been angels 
of light in those years, or even now?

Harry's darkness is no more than that of any teenager. We all have 
- or had - moments of darkness and did or thought things which 
we later regretted. Even now, I still think thoughts which I know are 
stupid or reckless or jealous and they still sometimes get translated
into actions which I later want to retract but can't.

That doesn't place me on the Dark side unless I welcome them and 
want to extend those thoughts and actions. That is one area which, 
for me as a Christian, I need to seek continual redemption and 
forgiveness.

I am glad that Harry is not squeaky clean, that he loses his temper, 
does thoughtless and uncaring things; it merely points him up as an 
average and normal member of fallen humanity.