Harry: Not Quite So Admirable

[alcuin74]

No: HPFGUIDX 158141

I'm not sure if this issue has been discussed already (I just don't
have the time to run through the almost 30,000 posts since HBP was
released) so here goes ...

As we know by now, the power Harry possesses that the Dark
Lord "knows not" is the power to love.  This was hinted at strongly
in the final discussion between Dumbledore and Harry at the end of
OotP and confirmed in the discussion they had after Harry had
retrieved Slughorn's memory in HBP.  I find the latter discussion
interesting, and disturbing, for two reasons.

First, and less seriously, Dumbledore says that Harry has "never
been seduced by the Dark Arts" (HBP 511, US ed.).  Is this true?
Unfortunately, Rowling has never given us a very clear definition of
what falls under the Dark Arts and what doesn't, but I should think
that the Unforgivable Curses count as Dark Arts.  Harry, of course,
tried to use an Unforgivable Curse, Cruciatus, on Bellatrix
Lestrange in the Ministry of Magic at the end of Ootp.  Again, in
his confrontation with Snape at the end of HBP, he tried to use both
Cruciatus and Sectumsempra on Snape (knowing full well what the
latter curse does).  So is Harry really "pure of heart, just as pure
as [he was] at the age of eleven" (ibid), as Dumbledore said?  I'm
not so sure.

Second, and more seriously, Dumbledore thinks that Harry's desire to
finish Voldemort arises from Harry's ability to love, the love he
has for his parents, whom Voldemort killed.  Perhaps it does, but it
seems to me that Dumbledore (i.e. Rowling) is conflating love with
vengeance.  After re-reading this passage, I can't help but think
that what Dumbledore is praising here, what he thinks is Harry's
great strength, is really nothing more than Harry's desire to avenge
the death of his parents.  I just can't see this as a
particularly "magical," heroic or admirable quality.

alcuin74.