JKR's intent

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178804

Betsy Hp:

Betsy Hp wrote:
> <snip> I'd guess Snape as the non-sympathetic holder of hidden 
> virtue.  Which he almost, sort of, was. If you squinted.  It seemed 
> more to me that he was broken by the guilt of what his naturally bad 
> self (ie Slytherin) did and then followed the orders of Dumbledore 
> (the virtue of Gryffindor) in an attempt to atone.  Which, going by 
> his not being present with the blessed dead, didn't really work.  
> Though Harry admired his pluck in the end.

Carol responds:
He represents, canonically, the two most important virtues in the
books, love and courage. We need only read Harry's public vindication
of Snape to see that if we can't see it from "The Prince's Tale"
alone. As for not being with the "blessed dead," surely that's because
he's not one of Harry's loved ones, not a person whose presence he
would want to give himself courage to join them. (Besides, he's just
had a cauldronful,  I mean a Pensieveful, of Snape's memories.)
Dumbledore, you'll notice, isn't there, either, because Harry thinks
that DD has betrayed him. Only later, when he wants answers, does he
summon DD. He's already learned everything that Snape can tell him,
exactly what he needed to know to forgive Snape and willingly
sacrifice himself. Now he needs the contributions of other dead
people. (Lupin as a beloved dead person is a bit iffy; my own theory
is that he needs Lupin's forgiveness, both for his words to him at 12
GP and for his death just as he gained happiness as a husband and
father.) That Snape doesn't appear among the "blessed dead" is no
indication that he's not redeemed. Dobby doesn't appear there, either,
or if House-Elves don't count, neither does Mad-Eye or Cedric or
Tonks. Harry summons only those closest to him or whose presence he
needs to give him the strength Voldemort without raising his wand to
fight back. Remorse could have put Voldemort's soul back together (at
least, those parts that haven't already been destroyed). Surely,
remorse and nearly seventeen years of atonement have earned Snape a
peaceful afterlife. We know, at least, that he earned Harry's
forgiveness and respect. You don't give your son the name, even the
middle name, of a person that you hold in contempt.


Betsy HP:
<snip> And Regulus wasn't among the blessed dead either that I  recall. 

Carol:
Of course not. Harry didn't know Regulus. Which doesn't mean that
Regulus isn't "blessed" in the afterlife. It only means that Harry
didn't call upon a stranger to give him courage. Instead, it's an
intimate little group of friends and the parents he never knew but
regarded as an inspiration. They, too, were murdered by Voldemort, as
Harry would have been, too, if not for his mother's self-sacrifice.
Pippin:
> > <snip>
> > House Elves will be freed when the House Elves want freedom, and 
when wizards realize what a burden their mastery is. The Houses will
unite when the children want unity, and when the adults realize what a
burden their discord is.
> > <snip>
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> But that is a tale for another time, about another hero, to be told
 by a different bard.  Harry's story is done and he is at rest. <g> 
IOWs, it sounds like a story worth reading, but it's not the one told
 in the Potter series.  It's not a story JKR was interested in 
telling.  So she didn't.
> 
> Betsy Hp
>
Carol:
Harry's story was about the conflict between himself and Voldemort.
With Voldemort destroyed, there will be no more DEs and Hogwarts, the
MoM, and the rest of the WW can get back to normal, not normal as we
saw it when Harry entered Hogwarts but normal as it was before Tom
Riddle entered the school, recruited fellow Slytherins (and perhaps a
few others) fo the DEs and opened the Chamber of Secrets (now emptied
of its Basilisk). There are no more Acromantulas in the Forbidden
Forest. Kingsley Shacklebolt, who view not only Muggleborns but
Muggles as people, is in charge of the MoM. The way is clear for
others to do their part. It was Harry's job to destroy the Horcruxes
(with help) and to defeat/kill Voldemort. Surely, it's someone else's
turn now. And *if* freeing the House-Elves is a good thing, it's
surely Hermione, not Harry, who will bring that about.

And, yes, the HP books have always been Harry's story. That's why his
name is in every title. It's not "The WW and the Wayward House-Elf" or
"Severus Snape and the Redemption of Slytherin." JKR likes to place
the future in the hands of children or young people. So now, setting
aside whatever Harry can do as an Auror (which I read as his future
based on canon, not on JKR's absurd statement that he became head of
the department at twenty-seven) and Hermione as a reformer, the more
distant future, in which Slytherin's bravery can wipe away the stains
caused by its association with Voldemort and pureblood supremacy, is
in the hands of the Potter and Weasley and Malfoy children and their
contemporaries. And meanwhile, Harry Potter's personal saga has the
happy ending JKR has always felt that she owed him. And I see nothing
wrong with that.

Carol, who thinks that Harry Potter is more of a Bildungsroman than a
heroic epic and he has as much in common with David Copperfield as
with Achilles, Horcruxes and the Battle of Hogwarts notwithstanding