Harry's character development: Static or Dynamic? Was: Saving Private Draco

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 183724

Carol: 
> Compare Frodo, who is obviously changed by his experiences,
including his own failure (and its near-disastrous consequences), to
the point where even Saruman says, "You have grown, Halfling."

Pippin:
Does Frodo change that much? He couldn't bring himself to cast The
Ring into the fire at Bag End, and he still couldn't make himself
do it when he got to Mt Doom. He was growing discontented with life in
the Shire before he left it, and he was still discontented when he
returned. 

Saruman's observation is a  strange one, because Saruman didn't know
Frodo. They'd spoken only once before, when Frodo said he'd give the
beggared Saruman some pipeweed if he had any. Saruman must be
comparing Frodo to the other Hobbits, most of whom would indeed  have
been satisfied to kill him.  (Hang on, I'm coming to a canon point here.)

But Saruman's intuition is correct. Frodo was like the other Hobbits
once, and he has indeed grown in his desire to show pity and mercy.
When Frodo first heard Gollum's story, he did not feel sorry for
Gollum and did not want to. He did not understand why Gandalf pitied
the creature  and showed him mercy, "not to strike without need." It
wasn't until he saw Gollum for himself that Frodo began to understand.

Harry was similarly bewildered by Dumbledore's treatment of Snape and
Draco. In HBP he thought Dumbledore was simply too obsessed with
seeing the good in people to recognize the bad. But Harry's plotline
is in a way the reverse of Frodo's. He'd seen Snape  all along, but it
wasn't until he learned Snape's history that he felt more than a
moment of sympathy for him. It was, as we know, too late by then for
mercy, but he did pity "Poor Severus." Harry then approves of mercy to
Draco and his family, allowing the Malfoys to remain  in the Great
Hall despite their history  as villains and enemies. 

Harry changes in another way that Frodo doesn't -- Frodo and Harry
both have zero interest in romance to start with. Frodo's sexuality
remains not so much static as non-existent. But Harry's grows, from a
shallow interest in Cho to a rewarding partnership with Ginny. It's
growth proceeding normally, but does that make it less meaningful?


Pippin