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

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 163519

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, juli17 at ... wrote:
> 
> > Mike previously:
> > 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>
> 
> 
> Julie:
> Remember too that JKR has stated the last two books are really  
> structured like one story (one book), so HBP ended right in the 
> middle of that story. Thus the conflict at the end of HBP between 
> Snape and Harry wasn't the final, nor the penultimate conflict of 
> this story (or of the book if HBP and DH are essentially two 
> parts of one book). That does make it hard to compare HBP with 
> the previous five books in terms of story structure, but JKR  did
> deliberately plan it this way.

Mike:
You know Julie, this might be the best explanation I've read. Of 
course, it does mean that JKR did omit or regress Harry's magical 
advancement for purposes of storyline. If this is the answer, I don't 
like it, I believe it, but I don't like it, not one bit.

> Julie: 
> As for why Harry's magical ability failed him this time, it's  
> because he wanted to do the undoable. What possible power is 
> going to reverse Dumbledore's fate?  <snip>

Mike:
My point was that Harry did not start out after Snape with revenge on 
his mind. He even started the whole encounter with a "Stupefy", an 
attempt to stop Snape. After that the whole encounter went downhill 
for Harry. And that's when he attempts the "Crucios", Sectumsempras", 
etc. Why? How does he go from savior mode to a revenge minded, 
attempting to hurt, firing off (well.. trying to) UFs and dark 
spells. 

It all goes pear-shaped for Harry when Snape stops and turns around 
to face Harry. I guess that's my answer. Until Harry saw Snape's 
face, it was all a concept, mis-guided as you said it was. After 
looking at Snape's face, Harry lost whatever objectivity he may have 
had in this pursuit. Re-reading helps :-)

> Julie:
> And by the time Harry caught up to Snape he was thinking about
> revenge. He was fighting wildly, without focus. 

Mike:
Or I could've just read your post further down. 
<big sheepish grin>

> Julie:
> I think that made the difference, and that's why Snape was 
> right when he told Harry to "shut his mouth and close his mind".
> What he really meant was without some control Harry won't be
> able to focus his power--wizardly or emotional--neither to 
> protect himself nor to defeat Voldemort. All he'll do is flail,
> impotently, as he did against Snape.  
>  
> Julie, who thinks Snape doesn't see Harry clearly (and vice   
> versa) but does know how uncontrolled emotion/passion can lead one 
> down a destructive path.

Mike, who has no comments for Julie's closing, just liked her 
analysis and think it deserved to be repeated.