Happy endings and locked rooms

[kibakianakaya]

No: HPFGUIDX 164647

Eggplant wrote
> Considering that locked room, the most mysterious thing about it
> is if it's just love behind it as most assume then why is it
> locked? I would think you'd want to set love free and get into the
> world. There must be something besides ordinary vanilla love in
> that room, love on steroids or something that makes it downright
> dangerous. Or maybe the Ministry wizards didn't lock it and are in
> fact trying to unlock it, but without success.

Lilygale:
I think the Ministry wizards have reason to keep that room locked.
I have just finished an essay by Phyllis D. Morris, found over at
the HP for Seekers website, about the role of fear in the series.
She supports the position that one antidote to fear is love.  I
agree that love can overcome fear and enable courage.  Love allows
us to act in ways that enable the happiness and well-being of
others, and allow us to overcome our own innate tendencies to think
of our own needs first.  In other words, Love allows us to act in a
way that benefits others (brain dead, can't think of the word).
Seems to me that the Ministry, like many government agencies, tends
to exert its power by creating fear in its citizenry, not that
differently than Voldemort or certain RW governments.  So it might
not be in their best interests to unleash such a powerful force for
change on its citizens.


> Maybe in book 7 Harry will find a way to unlock
> it, something even Dumbledore couldn't do. He knows that opening
> the door is the only way to destroy Voldemort but Harry also knows
> that if he does so he will die too; remember that powerful "old
>magic" involves sacrifice.

But not *all* old magic involves sacrifice.  I don't believe the
reason the force hasn't been used against LV has to do with being
unable to open the door.  I think it has to do with being able to
control the force once the door *is* opened.  And Harry has the
courage, the will and the deep desire to use that force, even at the
expense of his own life (e.g. his thought about entering the
gladiator's arena with his head held high).


> Perhaps in the second to the last chapter, the one just before
> epilog where the adult lives of the surviving characters are
> described, Harry opens that door and Harry Potter is no more.  <snip>
>
> But even if I'm wrong and the second to last chapter of the last
> book is not entitled "The Man Who Died" and Harry survives, do you
> think the series will have a happy ending? To put it more
> concretely, will you be happy when you read the last page or will
> you have a tear in your eye? I think that largely depends on if
> Harry is happy on the last page. Personally I think if Harry
> survives he will be crippled emotionally and perhaps physically as
> well.


I don't believe Harry will be crippled emotionally.  Of course JKR
might write it that way, but the Harry we know so far is highly
resilient emotionally.  In fact, part of his resiliency lies with
his excellent psychological defense system, the same one that
protects him from guilt by blaming Snape for Sirius' death etc.

In any case, if Harry lives I would consider it a happy ending.  If
he dies, than I hope JKR can convince me emotionally that there is
good reason for his death.

Lilygale, who is not sure how these characters came to be so
important in her life, and will genuinely mourn if Harry dies