Satisfaction of the story to date (was: I Hate Horcruxes Society)

[kibakianakaya]

No: HPFGUIDX 163408

> Mike now:
SNIP>
> But after he finds out he is the "Chosen One" at the end of OotP,
how
> can he be shown as the still uninterested youth of his first five
> years? There is more of the "hormonal-Harry" in HBP than the guy
> destined-to-bring-down-Voldemort-who-better-start-getting-prepared-
> Harry. If that isn't regression it is at the least an appalling
lack
> of progression. Where's the urgency? Where's the resolve that he
> seemed to have in the Weasley's broomshed? Harry is more
interested
> in Quidditch and how his Captaincy will be viewed in retrospect
than
> whether he can cast a defensive spell non-verbally. Huh? This is
the
> priority our hero has set for himself? IOW, what Annemehr said:

>
> > Carol responds:
> >
> > I agree with both of you although I hope that Harry learned some
of
> > what Snape taught him and that those lessons will come back to
him
> > when he needs them, without Snape's presence in his daily life to
> > distract him. While Harry may not learn to "close his [mind]",
> > surely he'll learn to "shut his mouth" --that is, to cast
nonverbal
> > spells, particularly defensive ones.
>
> Mike interjects:
> But when? Isn't this year (6th) the year to be learning to cast
non-
> verbals? Which one does he show any ability for, after this year?
> None that I see, at least none that he should have been learning
in
> DADA class. Shouldn't he be able to cast some of them non-verbally
by
> the end of the year? How about that "Petrificus Totalus" that
> Hermione learned to cast verbally in year one? Shouldn't Harry be
> able to cast that one non-verbally by now?


Lilygale responds:
I don't see Harry taking his role as Chosen One lightly, but he has
managed to lead a relatively normal teenage life, which was one of
Dumbledore's main goals in protecting Harry from the prophecy.
Harry follows Dumbledore's lead in learning about the past, and his
own lead in pursuing his suspicions regarding Draco.

And Harry *has* demonstrated an ability with non-verbal spells.  He
merely thinks Levicorpus and Ron is hanging from the ceiling.  He
used a non-verbal Aguamenti (sp?) to refill the wine bottles in
order to reach an important goal.

True, Harry regressed back to easier modes (verbal, more basic
spells) when faced with a real life and death fight.  That's not
surprising given the level of stress as well as the fact that simple
verbal spells have served him well in the past against Voldemort.
So who could predict that the simple spells would not work against
Snape?  Harry didn't.  We don't have any canon showing us exactly
what Snape was teaching in DADA, so we don't have standards to judge.

As far as initiative, Harry certainly took advantage of all the
Prince had to offer.  And regarding Harry's interests, I thought
that JKR was making it clear that Harry was losing just a little
interest in Quidditch, in part because more important things (Malfoy
= Death Eater) were on his mind.  Remember how *strongly* tempted he
was to ditch a match and run after Malfoy.  I can't imagine 13 or 15
year old Harry even imagining such a thing.  (Slightly off topic,
but I believe Harry was disgruntled about missing the last Quidditch
match more because he felt ashamed that he was letting his team down
rather than ignoring the reason for the detention in the first
place.)

Lilygale