[HPforGrownups] Harry's remorse (Re: CHAPDISC: HBP24,)/Help for a Newbie

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 161304

> Magpie:
>> Or just popping into my head--Ron in GoF gets angry at Harry etc.,
>> and after they make up the narrator notes that Ron seems like he's
>> being extra loyal to Harry because he seems to still feel badly
>> about his behavior.  It seems like Ron actually looked back on his
>> behavior and it meant something to him.
>
> Jen: It's so easy to do with a friend and so hard with an enemy.  I
> know you're just pointing out what you'd like to see happen with
> Harry to show growth, an actual change in behavior.

Magpie:
Oh no, sorry.  I didn't mean that.  I was just pointing out Ron's behavior 
as showing that he seemed to be disturbed by his behavior, not that Harry 
should ever feel a similar way about Draco in wanting to make it up to him 
or anything.  With Sectumsempra it wasn't just Harry and Draco's 
relationship I was thinking about but Harry facing someone--anyone--that 
he'd just caused so much damage to, you know?  It just seemed like it was 
too invisible, like imagine accidentally shooting someone, even someone you 
hated.  Then they come back to class and it's a non-issue.  I'm not sure if 
it's intentionally put off or it's a hole.  It's a big emotional ball to 
drop for me, but JKR sometimes puts plot over finishing emotional arcs.

As you said, it's actually Draco's actions on the Tower that make Harry 
change his opinion on Draco as a person at all--the bathroom really only 
brought home possibly Draco's humanness and vulnerability. It's hard because 
usually I'd doubt we'd revisit a scene in the next book, but with this I can 
imagine that JKR would place certain things in the "second half" of this 
story because it's better for both plots.  Sort of like how she makes sure 
Ron's romantic issues tend to happen at times most convenient for Harry to 
react to them.:-)  Harry and Draco have a set number of interactions and if 
they interact in any substantial way in the seventh book in a way that's 
different I wouldn't be surprised if the past was referenced.

> Jen: I not sure about 'often' here, in fact, many examples are
> springing to my mind:  Recognizing in the DOM battle he may have led
> his friends to certain death, realizing he was selfish to never
> wonder why Neville lived with Gran, feeling shame after Lupin
> corrects him over the ill-advised Hogsmeade visit, recognizing he
> was wrong not to try harder to get the memory for Dumbledore,
> feeling guilt over Cedric's death, identifying and understanding
> Snape's feelings more than James' in the Pensieve scene....gosh,
> there are so many more but that's a start.>
> He does have these patterns with Snape and Draco/Slytherins. JKR's
> depiction of his behavior with enemies is more believable to me than
> if Harry was always learning from his mistakes with these guys or
> recognizing his rationalizations.  After all, if the only people
> consistently telling you to rethink things are Snape and that
> dubious walking conscience, Hermione, it's pretty hard to get the
> honest feedback you need to consider changing.

Magpie:
Often was probably a bad word to use--I did mean his behavior regarding 
certain characters and in certain situations.  It's not that Harry never 
learns anything (usually each book has him learning a lot) but that he, like 
most people, has certain areas where he's got a blind spot. Those are the 
relationships that seem like they need to be resolved.  With Neville and 
Luna, for instance, Harry isn't interested in them and is brought up short 
when he realizes they have experienced things he can identify with or that 
they've suffered, but there's nothing he really needs to resolve there, 
since he's never wronged them and they don't represent anything he's 
uncomfortable with in himself.  His relationshp with them stays pretty much 
the same.

With Snape, otoh, Harry would rather not identify with him and while he was 
upset in seeing a completely different Snape in a scene where he was in the 
victim role, usually he looks for things with Snape to validate the pov he 
already has. It's really only in the last two books before the end (when 
Harry and the Slytherins are in a totally different game) that Harry has 
moment where he sees them vulnerable in a way that he can't help but connect 
with. The Pensieve scene always interests me in the way Harry automatically 
identifies with Snape because of the role Snape is in, while to me it seems 
he's missing some pretty big ways he's like James.

> Jen:  Once I read that JKR isn't writing any more Quidditch scenes
> that sort of explained it for me.  That one was for her, she
> couldn't quite bring herself to write the last game ever as a loss
> even if that would have been a better story or ethically more
> congruent or whatever.  Just a guess. (And my son is very cool, I
> can even forgive him for being an OFH!Snaper <g>.)

Magpie:
Honestly, that's the feeling I get a lot, that she just can't bring herself 
to have him lose, or that she just naturally enjoys events where Harry pulls 
through.

-m