Happy endings and locked rooms

[snow15145]

No: HPFGUIDX 164662




Jen snipped:

Maybe Harry couldn't open the door yet 
because he hadn't overcome all the barriers to accessing his power in 
OOTP? I'd find that a compelling twist. I believe Lily worked at 
the DOM and studied that force and while she didn't plan her 
sacrifice, the combination of having the same power as Harry and her 
almost unconcious incorporation of what she studied led to her 
innately knowing what to do.

Snow:

It would make utter sense that the only persons who could have worked 
in the locked room would have been persons who had the same power 
that the room holds. 

I always liked the idea of Neville's mom having worked alongside 
of Lily (both being pregnant and due just a day from each other),  
Alice does show an extreme love for Neville even yet, despite her 
present circumstances. 

Jen:

I completely bought Dumbledore's line about a 'force more wonderful 
and terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of 
nature.' Feeling love from and for another is wonderful, but 
watching someone you love hurting or losing love altogether does feel 
terribly painful.

Snow:

A force powerful enough to be a protection!!! 

It's like the mother who picks up the car from her trapped 
child...yes it is adrenalin but what caused the adrenalin to go 
beyond the natural human capacity? 

Jen:

And someone like Voldemort who has never 
experienced love finds it agony. That made sense to me after hearing 
how babies who have never attached to a primary caregiver and 
experienced physical bonding with another find it difficult to accept 
physical expressions of love (and perhaps emotional too, my only 
knowledge is reading a few articles but I remembered these when 
learning about baby Riddle).

Snow:

I had read somewhere, quite awhile ago, that someone had experimented
with babies to find how much human touch and verbal correspondence 
(or lack thereof) affected a child's growth...they found (to the poor 
babies detriment) that the babies suffered immensely from very early 
neglect to an infants growth. The babies were delayed, if not 
completely insufficient, in almost every aspect of development.

Voldemort, being a mere infant and introduced to uncaring neglected 
circumstances (such as the home he was destined to, who had nothing 
more than caretakers with many charges) more than added to his 
currant inadequacies and fears. 

It's not a total excuse for Tom's choices, since we have seen Harry 
grow up in a neglectful atmosphere but Harry did have something lil 
Tom didn't have...and that was a loving mother for fifteen months. 

We have also been absent of the way in which Harry was treated by 
Petunia before our story started on page one. 

Jen:

Jen: I'd say Dumbledore believed the force is what guides Harry to 
put other people's lives before his own and also what protects him 
from Voldemort. I'm pretty sure the realization that the locked room 
is the means to vanquish LV will be Harry's to make, once he puts 
together what he learned from Dumbledore about his own power and 
Voldemort's weakness, and when he finally learns Lily's story 
(regardless of whether she worked at the DOM).

Snow:

Exactly! Harry damn neared died in his first encounter with 
Voldemort's possession tactics in his first year because he wasn't 
strong enough at eleven years old to experience the wonderful and 
terrible feelings of love. 

It's like when you get a puppy and the puppy dies for some reason, 
you naturally feel upset over the puppy's departure. However when you 
have spent...let's say ten plus years with the dog, you are 
devastated by its death to the point of extreme emotion. 

Every aspect of Harry's life experience contributes to this power of 
love he is said to be so filled with. Harry has never recognized that 
he loves so deeply that he reacts without thought and question to 
his `own' survival. 

Harry only recognizes, after the fact, that he had done so without 
regard to `others' safety. Harry cares for all persons involved and 
yet he beats himself up for what `could' have happened to them rather 
than what he saved them from. Harry never takes credit for what he 
does do...and more often than not, none is given. 

Even when Pettigrew was made to be the spy, Harry did not seek 
revenge on him, but more so protection for those who he quickly 
believed he recognized as innocents. 

Right or wrong of who was innocent, Harry made a decision quickly 
from the heart and it was not to kill or to have his father's best 
buds be killers (and that was way before Harry knew that killing 
would split the soul). 

Jen: 

Aw, that strikes me as a sad but true thought. I'm assuming 
the gleam has to do with Harry's blood weakening Voldemort in some 
way he overlooked (as usual since he doesn't know love), but it's the 
same difference if both the power in the room and the blood 
protection running in Harry's veins are love. 

Snow:

Actually I think Dumbledore's hesitation on that matter was answered 
in OOP. Voldemort was able to physically attack Harry and enter, or 
attempt possession, but Voldemort obviously couldn't withstand the 
unexpected searing pain of love. 

Dumbledore knew that Voldemort made himself susceptible to the power 
of love when he used Harry's blood, Dumbledore also understood that 
Harry would have to expel Voldemort (or possibly not, that was 
Dumbledore's grimace) with that power. It was all up to the power of 
love in the end...and it worked.  

Of course, Harry very freshly experienced the loss he had the night 
of Voldemort's attempt to possess Harry; I'm not so sure that was 
sheer coincidence. 

Jen snipped:

Either way, I think the Deathly Hallows could be bookends for the 
series, referring in the beginning to the All Hallow's Eve when the 
Potters died, and in the end to the holy/sacred force in the locked 
room where Voldemort is finally vanquished, and Harry...don't know 
but hope it's the place where he loses the soul piece connecting him 
to LV (if he has one) and is finally able to really live.

Snow:

Oh Jen, I was with you up to this point...are you not a Non `crux 
fan? Harry-has-Voldy-soul-but-not-as-an-official-`Crux. 

The rules change with a living thing that can think for itself. It's 
highly frowned upon to make a creature with a soul a Horcrux; none of 
the previous Horcrux rules apply, especially when you don't glue the 
soul bit to its container with a bit of the spell required. 

Great thoughts, Jen 

Snow- who would also like to thank Eggplant for bringing up the 
subject matter