The Fundamental Message.../ Heroes...

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 176414

Betsy:
Rather than making decisions on his own, Harry
follows instructions.  Which, IMO, means he never really becomes a
man.  Certainly not his own man, anyway.

Pippin:
::splutters:: But...But...But... Harry *did* come up with his own plan!
Dumbledore's plan was for Harry to destroy all the horcruxes, including Nagini,
before confronting Voldemort. Harry would have had to die in battle,
leaving Voldie's final demise for Snape or others (that the drop of
blood might save Harry was at most a theoretical possibility, and neither 
Dumbledore nor Harry could count on it.) 

But Harry came up with another plan. He went to death without defending
himself at all, *choosing* to die when, as Voldemort kept taunting him,
he could have  sent others to die in his stead. This is definitely *not* 
Dumbledore's plan, if only because  Nagini was supposed to be destroyed
first.

But Harry was unwilling to wait. His friends were dying, Voldemort was
greater and more terrible than he was during the first war, and once 
again wizards  who were unquestionably opposed to the Dark Side are 
proving they can't restrain themselves from using the unforgivable curses. 

But  by choosing to die, Harry gavem himself  the rare opportunity 
to do as his mother did and invoke a powerful protection against 
Voldemort.  

Lily, like Narcissa,  only thought  of saving her son. Harry's plan was to
protect *everyone* -- and he succeeded. From the moment Harry came
back to the living world, no one was harmed by Voldemort's magic except 
Voldemort himself. 

I  haven't got my book here to quote (I'm in Scotland --yay!) but Harry 
says he's protected everyone and Voldemort's spells aren't working 
properly. It sounds like he's bluffing, but he's not and the proof is that 
Neville and the Sorting Hat remained unharmed despite being 
engulfed in Voldemort's magical  flames. (It seems to
have been other people who were screaming.) 

Harry did become his own man, and as Dumbledore admitted, a far better
man than Dumbledore was.

Of course JKR didn't show us Harry thinking about this plan in advance,
just like she didn't show him thinking about how he was going to trick
Ron into thinking he'd drunk felix.  But it's all in his speech to Voldemort. 
It took me a few re-readings to grasp it of course. But that's as usual.

Honestly, I don't see the books as promoting a belief in suicide any
more than they promote a belief in witchcraft. Harry  does not choose to die
because of Dumbledore's manipulation, or destiny, or because he's  depressed
or because his life is meaningless or because he wants people to feel 
sorry when  he's gone. He chooses to sacrifice himself like 
Ron in the chess game, for the lives of others. 


I think looking for  Slytherin students in the RoR or the final battle is missing
the forest for the trees. 

The room of requirement was for people hiding from the Carrows, which the 
Slytherins shouldn't need to do (shouldn't they be cunning enough not to 
need extra protection?) As for not staying to fight, since when has not 
joining a volunteer force been some sort of litmus test for goodness? 

They were given a legitimate choice and they chose, as did many 
Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, not to enlist. Nobody in canon says, 
"Good riddance" or claims that they were disloyal (except Voldemort) and 
yet fanon has JKR painting them as draft dodgers or deserters. Sheesh! 

What should the Houses united look like? Shouldn't it be each 
House playing to its strengths in the interest of the whole? 
Do Slytherin cunning, ambition, and yes, self-interest do this?

 Well, let's see, without them Lily, Dumbledore  
and Harry would have sacrificed themselves for nothing. So what if
Slytherin House could not fight Voldemort?  Without them
Hogwarts and Harry would have been destroyed.  


The point is made with the way James and Sirius die. James throws his
life away, "too arrogant to believe he might be mistaken" in his friends,
disregarding information that can only have originated with Snape, plus
showing us that some Gryffindors  haven't got the self-preservation
instincts of a deer in the headlights.  (His death was so *useless*. Honestly,
if he'd tripped over a hassock on the way to the front door, and Voldemort
had found Lily first, Harry might still have a father.)

Sirius died because he didn't stay behind as Snape wished him to.

But Dumbledore had confidence in Snape and Draco for the same reason 
that he had confidence in Harry and Ron. He'd gotten  to know them, 
despite his initial disgust and whatever preconceptions he had. Lily did the 
same with Snape, (and for that reason, sadly, knew when a time had 
come that she couldn't trust Snape any more.) That's the message 
about prejudice, IMO.

It's not 'every life is worth the same and every life is worth saving' because
anyone can be a hero. That would be expecting a lot too much of some of
us (I'm no hero, for sure.) But anyone can *help* a hero.

If  we could all save ourselves, we wouldn't *need* heroes. 

Pippin