Wands and Wizards...Again (Was: Epilogue ...)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 183592

Carol:
> As for Harry as "slave owner," how do we know that he doesn't
> ultimately give Kreacher the choice of staying at Hogwarts or
> returning to 12 GP, if that's where Harry chooses to live? I doubt
> that he wants his freedom; I think he'd be insulted by the offer of
> clothes. But I see nothing preventing Harry from solving the Kreacher
> problem the same way he solved it before, by having Kreacher work at
> Hogwarts instead of staying with him. Only this time it could be
> worded as a request or even a choice rather than an order.

Magpie:
Do we want to get into this again?:-) He's a slave owner because he 
owns a slave. We don't end with Harry asking Kreacher where he wants to 
live (Harry barely gives a thought to where Kreacher lives anyway until 
he needs him someplace so why would he start now?), we end with him 
thinking about Kreacher serving him something. Of course Kreacher 
doesn't want freedom. That's why House Elves are such awesome slaves. 
Even when Kreacher wants freedom (like the freedom not to work for 
Harry or Sirius in HBP and OotP, but to work for other people instead) 
he doesn't call it that.

His last line about the sandwich stands out not because we know whether 
or not Harry will decide to request one, or whether or not Kreacher 
would be offended if he didn't ask him to make it (he probably would 
want to make it himself--House Elves take pride in being good 
servants), but because it reminds us that Harry has Kreacher, his loyal 
slave, at his disposal as part of his everyday, Voldemort free-life. 
Whether or not one is particularly bothered by it, having a slave is 
part of Harry's happy life in the magical wizarding world. I agree 
there's plenty of reason not to be bothered by it and to think that 
this condition is a fine thing for House Elves and for Harry (Harry 
seems to agree and there's a lot of arguments in canon made for that). 
But it does seem to sometimes logically inspire justification to make 
it just a little bit more okay than it might otherwise be (just as it's 
not really torture if Harry was very upset and he didn't do it for that 
long and let's call it a strategical way to stop the guy, maybe it's 
not really slavery if Kreacher is thrilled to be owned by Harry now and 
Harry doesn't get off on being abusive about it).

For me, it seems like that Kreacher line is similar to the Crucio one. 
It's there as a pleasant, happy thing about Harry. With the Crucio he's 
taking care of a bad guy and making a cool quip. With the Kreacher line 
Harry is going to his heroic reward, all the good things he's unfairly 
taken away from by Voldemort--his cozy life, his house elf, his warm 
bed, and good food.

> 
> Carol, who wishes that just once Harry would make a mistake,
> acknowledge that mistake, learn from the mistake, and live with the
> consequences

Magpie:
The rest I agree with.:-) Twice when Harry does seem to have facing 
something like a consequence a mean teacher comes in to make Harry 
think of himself as the victim in the situation. I don't think it's 
naivite that would cause a reader to fail to impose feelings on the 
character that aren't suggested in the text. I mean, there are plenty 
of shippers sure that the couples in canon can't work because they 
themselves don't like them--iow, Hermione can't like Ron because the 
reader him/herself doesn't like Ron. But does that mean JKR intends us 
to fill in a divorce in Ron and Hermione's future? I don't.

Nor do I think Harry as described in canon will ever look back on his 
Crucio with regret. I don't think the author has a problem with it. And 
I think that readers who like the scene or just aren't bothered by it 
don't have to feel that way because they condone torture or think what 
Harry did wasn't torture. I think they are just reading the scene in 
the way it may have been intended, as a satisfying moment. Just as I 
know many readers are angered by people have problems with the Kreacher 
line, which imo is intended as just a happy ending along the lines 
of "And it was still hot" in "Where The Wild Things Are."

-m