Wands and Wizards...Again

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 183640


> Montavilla47:
> Exactly!
> 
> The thing about Harry saving Draco from the fire is that there 
really 
> isn't a point in the series--including their duel in the bathroom--
> when Harry *wouldn't* have saved Draco from a fire. 

Magpie:
I wasn't even thinking of it in those terms--though yeah, I think at 
worst Harry was like James. He hated Snape, but he didn't want him 
dead. This was the only time when the possibility came up.

I was thinking about how when Harry did almost kill Malfoy by 
accident, the idea that he wanted him dead on any level is not what's 
dramatized in the text at all. Harry knows he didn't want him dead, 
he didn't know what the curse did. The other reactions we get, iirc, 
are Ron saying that of course what he did wasn't good, but the book 
was helpful. Ginny (Harry's soulmate) says it's good Harry had 
something up his sleeve. Hermione, who's never liked the book, begs 
Harry to think of Quidditch. Snape goes back to his own issues. 
Nobody ever fears that Harry really wanted to murder Draco or could 
become a killer. He's still unique for his ability to love and lack 
of interest in the Dark Arts.

Harry has a twinge of conscience showing that he gets that it was 
serious, and he says "NO!" when it happens, even if there's nothing 
he can do in those few seconds. He thinks of the book as a tame dog 
that just bit him (iow, it's not Harry who's the dog who suddenly 
attacked, it's the book--Snape's the one who's going to become a DE). 
But he fairly quickly moves on to thinking about other people are 
able to treat him after the incident. 

So yeah, I don't see a particular character growth in saving Draco. 
The movement there was Harry's drop of pity and realizing that Draco 
wasn't a killer. His actually going into the room to rescue Draco 
goes above and beyond just not wishing him dead, but it's not 
surprising or a turnaround for Harry, imo. As you say, he had a 
saving people thing before (this is pointed out more than once), so 
however he felt about Malfoy before saving anybody (especially not 
somebody designated in the text as at least quasi-innocent) can't be 
described as a big change.

-m