Harry's Characterization (was: Satisfaction of the story to date )

[Annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 163450

I'm really enjoying this thread, and would have piped up again 
yesterday, and responded to more posts, except I'm having too much RL 
these days.  Since this bit is most zeroed in to what my interest is 
focussed on, I'll have to content myself with this.


> > Ken:
> > Mike I share your feeling on a gut level that Harry isn't ready, 
> > that he simply hasn't even begun to learn enough. I would note in 
> > passing however that Harry is learning far more than the pages of 
> > the book lead us to believe most of the time. Were you surprised 
by 
> > his OWL results? I wasn't but I was. <snip>  The
> > text of the book is consistently misdirecting us from Harry's true
> > potential and actual performance as a student. It is also grossly
> > overstating Snape's failings as a teacher.
> 
> Mike again:
> In this paragraph you have stated the dichotomy of the boy Harry 
> Potter which JKR has writ large over the whole series. She writes a 
> character that seems to barely be succeeding in everyday life, but 
> suddenly draws from some inner power to succeed when the chips are 
> down. She never shows us from whence this ability springs, but we 
> have plenty of hints that it is there just below the surface, 
waiting 
> to be called upon.
> 
> I have always thought that a simple line from Sirius, up in the 
cave 
> during GoF, was a very telling line both for Harry and for JKR's 
> Wizarding World in toto. To wit: 
> 
> "He's a great wizard, Barty Crouch, **powerfully magical** -..." 
> (GoF p.526, US, emphasis mine). 
> 
> In JKR's WW, a witch or wizard evidently can have some *je ne sais 
> quoi* which puts them in a magical class above the norm. Then there 
> are those which far exceed the norm, making them almost a seperate 
> species of wizard. Voldemort is there, Dumbledore was probably 
there, 
> and JKR has shown me enough hints to think that Harry is there. 
Harry 
> has "IT", whatever it is. (Some speculation coming here, but the 
gist 
> of "IT" is all over the page, IMO) 
> 
> It matters not how young Harry is, once he reaches his 17th 
birthday, 
> the "IT" will become fully fledged. Harry *will* be able to 
challenge 
> Voldemort toe-to-toe because of his inate abilities. In fact, he 
> already did it in GoF, in the graveyard. Harry was able by force of 
> will to overpower Voldemort during the "Priori Incantatum" wand 
> connection. So we know Harry is more powerfully magical than 
> Voldemort. (Side question: I wonder if he would have been more 
> powerful than a *whole* Tom Riddle?) 
> 
> Does Harry realize this? It seems not. <snip> 

Annemehr:
It is really tempting to agree with you... but *I don't know.*  It 
seems to me the strongest canon hints point to Harry's power of 
*character* rather than of *magic.*

In PS/SS ch. 16 (very near the end):
----------------------------------------------------------------
'Harry -- you're a great wizard, you know.'

'I'm not as good as you,' said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go 
of him.

'Me!' said Hermione.  'Books! And cleverness!  There are more 
important things -- friendship and bravery and -- oh Harry -- 
be /careful/!'
-----------------------------------------------------------------

In GoF, in the graveyard, Harry did indeed by force of will push the 
light beads back into LV's wand, but he seems to have managed this 
because of his character, not magic power.  First of all, there is 
his stubbornness, which I say is not a *flaw* but a neutral character 
trait (that is, he could tap into it when it's helpful, as in the 
graveyard, but learn to control it when it isn't, as in lessons with 
Snape).

But during Priori Incantatem, Harry was also helped by phoenix song, 
which 'is reputed to increase the courage of the pure of heart and to 
strike fear into the hearts of the impure.' [FBaWTFT, p. 32]  
Character again.

In OoP, after DD replays the prophecy for Harry in the pensieve, and 
Harry protests that 'I haven't any powers he hasn't got, I couldn't 
fight the way he did tonight, I can't possess people or -- or kill 
them --' DD replies 'There is a room in the Department of Mysteries, 
[...] It is the power held within that room that you possess in such 
quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. [...] That power also 
saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to 
reside in a body so full of the force he detests.  In the end, it 
mattered not that you could not close your mind.  It was your heart 
that saved you.' [OoP, ch. 37, near the end]

That is, it was not magical power (Occlumency), but character (love) 
that forced LV out.

And DD reiterates that the power the Dark Lord knows not is 'just 
love' [HBP ch. 23, p. 509 US].


BUT...

But, but, but...

You can certainly argue with all this, Mike, because JKR *does 
indeed* seem to mix the idea of love with magical power.

Back to PS/SS:
------------------------------------------------------------
'But why couldn't Quirrell touch me?'

'Your mother died to save you.  If there is one thing Voldemort 
cannot understand, it is love.   He didn't realise that love as 
powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark.[...]
[PS/SS ch. 17]
-------------------------------------------------------------

This 'mark' Lily's love left not only burned Quirrell's skin, but was 
also apparently used in a protection charm for the place where 
Petunia dwells.

LV understands these protections to be magic:
'His mother left upon him the traces of her sacrifice....This is old 
magic, I should have remembered it, I was foolish to overlook 
it....but no matter, I can touch him now.' [GoF ch. 33, pp. 652-653 
US]

'Dumbledore invoked an ancient magic, to ensure the boy's protection 
as long as he is in his relations' care.' [GoF ch. 33, p. 657 US]

Although, of course, LV's interpretations of a power he knows not may 
be subject to doubt. ;)

Then we have the Department of Mysteries, where such things as Love, 
Death, and Time are studied.  On the one hand, these things are part 
of human life universally, Muggle and Magical alike.  On the other 
hand, there *does* seem to be some difference.  Wizards do have Time-
Turners, and Wizards who die *can* choose to remain as ghosts, while 
Muggles cannot [OoP ch. 38, p. 860US].  So, if Lily had been a Muggle 
instead of Muggleborn, would Quirrell's skin have burned?

And again, during the GoF graveyard Priori Incantatem, it was Harry's 
purity of heart combined with the magical Phoenix song that saved 
him...

It's a puzzle to me.  I suppose it partly involves JKR's purpose in 
sharply distinguishing the Wizards from the Muggles and her apparent 
wish for us to identify with the Wizards.

But it still seems to me that Harry's power is to be of a different 
*quality* than LV's or DD's powerful magicalness.


Anyway, on to another matter...


Mike:
> So what happened to that boy in HBP? In every other book, Harry's 
> magical abilities are the lynchpin to the end results of the 
> penultimate or ultimate conflict of the book. <snip>
> 
> What did he do in HBP? Well ... he apparated back to Hogsmeade. 
Wow, 
> what a show of magical ability. He couldn't even handle an 
> untransformed Greyback without help, much less land a single spell 
on 
> Snape. Remember, while he's chasing them through and out of the 
> castle, Harry thought stopping Snape was the key to rescuing 
> Dumbledore. He wasn't thinking revenge as he was catching up to 
Snape 
> and Draco. In his mind was the thought that he could somehow 
reverse 
> events if he stopped Snape from escaping. So where was that inate 
> magical ability when *Harry* thought he needed to do something? It 
> wasn't there, was it? What happened? How come a year older Harry's 
> power has failed him? I hate to think it was all for the storyline, 
> but I hasve no other explanation. This is my grievance with HBP, 
the 
> book.


As a true DDM!Snape believer, I suggest that it's because *Snape* is 
powerfully magical and an integral part of the plan to defeat LV, and 
that Snape knew -- *really* knew -- what he had to do, and it wasn't 
to be captured by Harry.

Annemehr