[HPforGrownups] Harry using Crucio -- my two cents

[Christine Maupin]

No: HPFGUIDX 174088

I have a general remark about Harry using Crucio, not one directed at any one comment.

Like many, I too was taken by surprise that he used such an extreme curse, an unforgivable no less, when a stupefy would have done just as well.  But, one of the things I love about JKR's stories -- her characters are flawed. The situation was indeed extreme and Harry reacted in an extreme way to what was "the straw that broke the camel's back" -- he had just learned from Neville how cruelly the Carrows had treated the students (students who were Harry's friends -- friends who had tried to carry on traditions he started, friends who in doing so displayed not only courage but loyalty to Harry and suffered because of it), he remembers the Carrows from the night Dumbledore died and how blood thirsty they were, Voldemort is on his way so the "clock is ticking," he still has to find the diadem, and his very presence at Hogwarts is about to begin a battle that will decide everything.  Even under normal circumstances I think that Harry would have considered a cruel Death Eater (dare I use the word scum) spitting in the face of his regal teacher the biggest insult possible -- and therefore worse than any words or curse Carrow could have used instead.  So, given the overall situation, Harry snapped for a moment...

Heck, I'd be tempted to use Crucio in rush hour traffic and I'm basically a nice, level-headed person... just trying to point out that we've been there.

Christy (who is too dependent on the cliche this morning and wants to sign off as cleverly as the rest of you...)