Snape's death scene

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 174211

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Christine Maupin 
<keywestdaze at ...> wrote:
> Harry, perfect?  The Harry who can tell a fib as well as any 
kid/teenager in an effort to keep himself out of trouble?  The Harry 
who, like many students, leaves his homework until the last minute 
and then does a half-*&^ job of it?  The Harry who can manipulate 
people pretty well when he wants to.  The Harry who waited until the 
last minute to work out the clue hidden inside the egg during the 
TriWizard Tournament?  The Harry who bluntly violated Snape's privacy 
by looking into the pensieve, failed to learn a skill (Occlumency) 
that all the adults in his life (including those he trusted, i.e., 
Dumbledore, Black, and Lupin) urged him to learn, and whose failure 
led to a monumental mistake that in turn led to the death of his 
godfather?  The Harry who used an unknown spell (Sectumsempra) on a 
fellow student (Draco) that almost resulted in that student bleeding 
to death and then lied about where he found the spell?  The Harry who 
used the Cruciatus curse?  (Those are the
>  examples I can come up with off the top of my head.)
> 
> In ways large and small, Harry proves over and over again that he 
is not perfect.  He is very much a flawed character.


va32h:

All your examples, except for the use of Crucio, come from previous 
books. And in Deathly Hallows, when Harry does use Crucio, it's 
treated as some sort of breakthrough for his character - a triumph 
that he can finally perform it successfully. 

I would definitely agree that in books 1-6 and even the first portion 
of DH, Harry is a flawed, human, well-developed character. During 
Dobby's burial however,  Harry develops some sort of weird Sherlock 
Holmes/Jessica Fletcher/Det. Goren thing  - where he needs one nugget 
of information to extrapolate entire (inevitably correct) scenarios.

I can understand the death of Dobby, torture of Hermione, and the 
entire Malfoy Manor experience acting as catalyst - making Harry 
decide to stop feeling sorry for himself and brooding on Dumbledore's 
misspent youth. But it does much more than that - for the rest of the 
book,  Harry is...well he's Indiana Jones!

Daring, clever plans, made up on the fly, impossible to injure, 
always getting away from the bad guy at just the right moment - Harry 
is a cinema hero. And I have to say, when Harry finished exploring 
Snape's memories in the pensieve? And he's laying on the floor? I had 
this instant image of Harry saying "Death...why'd it have to be 
death?" 

I'm just not sure I believe post-Dobby's death Harry as the natural 
result of Harry's development up to that point. 

va32h