Harry's Characterization

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 163500

> bboyminn: 
<snip>
> Harry is on the inside looking out, and what he sees is
> dark and extremely dangerous and certainly DEADLY.

Jen: It's a good idea to consider this from Harry's perspective, so 
I'm looking through his eyes when answering, discovering where that 
leads.

bboyminn:
> And that seems to be Harry's attitude; he is going to 
> go down fighting. Dumbledore is telling him figuratively
> that all he needs is a box of chocolates and some roses,
> but Harry sees the deadly and destructive forces of 
> Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and I simply can't 
> believe that Harry is convinced a few hug and kisses and
> a box of chocolates is going to do it, regardless of what
> Dumbledore said. 

Jen:  Harry is not convinced that love can help him, that's true. 'I 
know!' said Harry impatiently. 'I can love!' It was only with 
difficulty he stopped himself from adding, 'Big Deal'. 

Harry does realize he wants Voldemort gone and he wants to be the one 
to kill him, and not just because the prophecy 'forces' him to be the 
Chosen One.  Harry accepts doing so will mean one of them will kill 
the other in the end.

Dumbledore gives a very thorough explanation for why he believes 
Harry is protected from Voldemort and how he is 'marked as his 
equal', and then he and Harry come to an understanding of why Harry 
*will* be the one and not because he's forced by the prophecy.  But 
Dumbledore doesn't resolve the dilemma of how point A and point B 
connect, and Harry doesn't ask. 

Okay, so this is the last real talk about how to proceed before 
Dumbledore dies.

bboy:
> Harry needs his machine gun; he needs his finely honed
> and deeply skilled magical power, and the only way to
> get that is to train long and hard. Now, I can excuse
> Harry up to this point, because he always had 
> Dumbledore to fall back on; Dumbledore has a plan, 
> Dumbledore will protect me, Dumbledore will tell me what
> to do, Dumbledore had the situation under control, but 
> Dumbledore is gone, and NOW EVERYTHING falls on Harry. 
> No More Excuses.

Jen:  After Dumbledore dies, Harry remembers Dumbledore talking about 
fighting evil, and fighting again....then he realizes the last and 
greatest of his protectors is gone and he feels very alone.  We hear 
Harry's plan: hunt horcruxes and kill Voldemort.  

I do agree with you more here, now that I consider this from Harry's 
perspective.  At least with the Horcruxes Harry has an idea of how to 
proceed, not a great idea, but he has an idea of the items he's 
hunting and knows he's destroyed one before.  Killing Voldemort, 
though....Harry's never killed anyone, never come close, doesn't know 
how and he's facing killing the most powerful dark wizard *ever*. 

Right, that's a problem. 

bboy:
<snip>
> >From Harry's perspective he is hopelessly out manned and out
> gunned, and if he has any chance of winning in his logical and
> rational eyes, he must bring himself up to as close to Voldemort's
> level of skill as he possibly can before the confrontation. He
> must do that even knowing that he can never reach that 
> level....Again, if you place yourself in Harry's mind to do anything
> else is completely irrational. 

Jen: Here's the point where Harry's internal perspective and yours 
diverge.  Harry doesn't always think logically and rationally, he's 
heart and emotion.  The above is more how Snape would think if he 
were the Chosen One.  It's the way Hermione *does* think in HBP: 'I 
wonder what he'll teach you, Harry?  Really advanced defensive magic, 
probably...powerful counter-curses...anti-jinxes....'

There needs to be a discussion about how Harry will kill Voldemort, 
the trio was conveniently interrupted from discussing this in HBP.  
They will ponder the power, and Hermione will likely suggest exactly 
what you propose--skills training.  Or one of the Lupin/Moody/Arthur 
trio will put two and two together about the Chosen One information 
and figure out they need to help train Harry now that Dumbledore is 
gone. 

But I see Harry refusing this course of action, rational or no.  He's 
come too far, placed far too much trust in what Dumbledore has told 
him.  He's taking this on faith, not rational, logical thought.  
That's just pure Harry to me, he isn't a planner, he's spontaneous, 
he doesn't always take the logical course of action....