Another mysterious message

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 165922

> Eggplant:
> Everybody knows about the mysterious "Gleam of triumph" passage in
> Goblet of Fire, but there is another strange remark made way back in
> book 2, it came right after Harry first found the diary but before he
> found out how to use it:
> 
> "While Harry was sure he had never heard the name T.M. Riddle before,
> it still seemed to mean something to him, almost as though Riddle was
> a friend he'd had when he was very small, and had half-forgotten. But
> this was absurd. He'd never had friends before Hogwarts, Dudley had
> made sure of that."
> (Chamber of Secrets, 233-34)
> 
> I've read 4 Potter books since then but I still don't know what that
> was all about. A friend?!
> 

Neri:
This "half forgotten friend" is a very important clue, I believe, one
that points to the very heart of the Harry Potter mystery. And it
joins a whole line of other subtle clues, all pointing to those early
years of Harry with the Dursleys, just after GH. Years that are
suspiciously shrouded in mystery, that are "half forgotten", and I
suspect for very good reasons. I recommend reading Chapter 2 of SS/PS
again, where you'll come across some of them. Here's something that,
when you think about it, seems just as absurd as that "friend" word:

***********************************************************
Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright-green
eyes. He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Sellotape
because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. The only
thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his
forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it as
long as he could remember and the first question he could ever
remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had got it.

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't
ask questions."  
************************************************************

Harry *liked* his scar. Not his "green-bright" eyes, which are also
special, and not his black hair that he got from his father. The only
thing he liked about his own appearance was the scar, despite it being
a constant reminder of the accident in which he'd lost his parents.
Why? Perhaps because in his subconscious it was also connected with a
certain half-forgotten friend? The only friend he had in his early
childhood?

Note also that the Dursleys, although they certainly don't want to
take Harry with them to the zoo, refuse to let him stay alone in the
house. "And come back and find the house in ruins?" asks Petunia
rhetorically. She seems to think it was baby Harry who blew up his
parents' house on them. It was all his fault. But why would she think
such a thing? She knows about Voldemort, after all. Perhaps she blames
Harry because he had some destructive incidents of uncontrolled magic
in front of her? But Harry doesn't remember such destructive
incidents. He only remembers innocent things like flying to the
school's roof and growing his hair back overnight. He protests: "I
won't blow up the house" and doesn't recall any such incidents. Or
maybe he had "half forgotten" them too? 

And it seems that there was at least one really bad incident. And very
suspiciously, Dudley has forgotten about it too. But under the effect
of a dementor he recalls it, and it was the worst memory he had in his
life, something so bad he won't talk about it. Harry wonders what it
is, and JKR promised we'll find out, so you can bet it's important.
But what could terrorize Dudley so badly? Reminds you of a certain boy
who had a hobby terrorizing muggle children? Only if it was him again,
then he was terrorizing Dudley but *not* Harry. Well, of course he
wasn't – he was Harry's *friend*. 

Oh, and there's another person who's very interested in Harry's half
forgotten years with the Dursleys. It's Snape. Instead of teaching
Harry some useful ways of blocking Voldemort he was spending all the
Occlumency lessons digging after Harry's "very early memories he had
not even realized he still had" (OotP, Ch. 26). What was so
interesting about these old memories? And yet, all Snape could dig up
was things like Dudley making Harry stand in the toilet, and that's
very strange in itself. Since when is Harry such a good Occlumens that
he can block Snape? Or was it someone else who blocked Snape? Someone
who unlike Harry is very good at Occlumency? Someone who was always
very good at making people forget? Someone who could hide the really
interesting memories without Snape or Harry even realizing that he did? 

Well, it looks like that someone has managed to fool Snape, because
only a few moths after the Occlumency lessons, in Spinner's End, Snape
mentions to Bella that in the beginning he had thought Harry might be
another Dark Lord, but now he's convinced Harry is useless. But I
think Snape wasn't realizing how much he was right about one thing:
Harry was indeed only saved by "more talented friends". There's that
word again. I suspect JKR had a very ironic smile on her face when she
wrote it.

Because if we accept all these clues, then we must conclude that that
someone *is* a friend of Harry. Not a very nice friend, perhaps – he
still has that nasty hobby of terrorizing muggle children – but the
point is that he doesn't terrorize Harry. He helps him. He seems to
like his current hiding place in the back of Harry's mind, a half
forgotten friend, and he wants to stay there. Perhaps he's very afraid
of what Harry would think of him if he ever finds out, and this is why
he decided to go underground when Harry grew up. He's mostly very
careful not to draw attention to himself, to his knowledge and powers.
But when Harry is in mortal danger, that someone would save him even
if it means destroying old parts of himself. Remember, when Harry
destroyed a Horcrux (and unlike the great Dumbledore without any
damage to himself) he did it "without thinking, without considering,
as though he had meant to do it all along" (CoS, 14). Or anyway, some
half forgotten friend in the back of Harry's mind had meant to do it,
if there would be need, and had also known *how* to do it. And you
know, a friend in need is a friend indeed. So I don't think there's
anything absurd about that "friend" paragraph in CoS. I think it's the
whole point.


Neri