Why should we care if Harry's not really needed? Re: Who needs Harry?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 182346

> 
> Betsy Hp:
> I can suspend disbelief and believe that dragons help guard a bank 
> run by goblins.  Ask me to believe that a young boy and his plucky 
> friends can waltz into that bank, steal stuff, and then escape on a 
> dragon? 

Pippin:
Why not? It's an inside job -- could some teenagers break into Fort
Knox if two of them were prodigies and  they had the help of a former
employee? No idea, but I do know that Admiral Grace Hopper, the
inventor of the COBAL computer language, had a crack team of recent
high school graduates that she used to test proposed government
software security systems that vendors claimed were unhackable. The
kids beat them every time. 

 Or don't you think JKR did enough to establish that Hermione and
Harry were extraordinarily talented?

Of course in a fable  we expect luck to play a part in the hero's
victory. It's part of the reward for being virtuous. I imagine any
such story would seem off to someone who didn't like the hero and
wanted to see him fail. 

Betsy HP
> So my issue with the Voldemort story is that JKR went sloppy.  She 
> couldn't be bothered to think up a truly formidable villain,

Pippin:
The battle in the MoM shows us why no one could capture Voldemort. He
was not only able to overcome every spell that Dumbledore, using the
Elder Wand, could throw at him, he could even send Dumbledore's magic
back at him and make the fire that Dumbledore sent  into a snake that
attacked Dumbledore. Nor was anyone able to stop Voldemort from
disapparating when the Ministry wizards arrived. 

If Voldemort could outfight the Elder Wand in the hands of Albus
Dumbledore, surely he would be a match for as many wizards as could
practically attack him at one time. Besides the horcruxes, he seems to
 have altered himself  enough so that ordinary spells didn't work
properly on him. Surely he was as physiologically different from a
normal human as Hagrid.
 
Voldemort was  able to fight Slughorn, McGonagall and Shacklebolt
all at once, and none of their spells could even touch him. That's
enough to  make him a credible supervillain, IMO. He may be out of his
depth at running an empire, but lots of dictators have had that problem. 

We are also told repeatedly that except for Harry, no one, *no one* 
survived once Voldemort had decided that said person should die. No
real historical figure has ever had any such power -- it's straight
out of Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. Voldie always gets his man. <g>

Imagine if Hitler was personally invulnerable, could show up anywhere
behind enemy lines except in the most hardened locations, could kill
with unlimited ammunition and could vanish  at will, while preventing
his victims from doing likewise. 

In any case, I'm afraid I can't share your  belief that our Muggle
governments would be able to catch Voldemort -- last I looked at least
one very prominent terrorist was on the loose.

As for Harry, he does have an extraordinary talent that most wizards,
and many real people, don't have -- he can think when he's frightened.
Most folks freeze up. That's what happens to poor Draco. He's not a
coward, he's brave enough to get  into situations he knows
will be dangerous, but then his mind goes blank when he's scared, IMO.
He's literally  out of his wits.  He can freeze or run away or fight,
but he can't *reason*. Anybody who's studied hard only to have the
mind go completely blank at the sight of an examination paper will
know the feeling. 

But Harry isn't like that -- though he's not aware of it,  his mind is
still working, and it tells him to stab the diary, or that he needs to
conjure the patronus himself, accio the cup, tell the others to knock
over the prophecy shelves, or extend a spell of protection from
Voldemort over the whole WW. Only against the Inferi do we see him so
scared that he can't think what to do. 

As this is a psychological quirk and not an acquired skill, it makes
sense to me that Harry should have this ability when many full grown
and fully trained wizards have not. Harry's got it, so have Dumbledore
and Snape. But it makes sense to me that wizards, whose powers first
manifest themselves when they are frightened or angry, are not
normally taught  to suppress their fear -- very unlike, say, Jedi
knights or Bene Gesserit witches, for example.

Harry gets some schooling in short-circuiting fear from Lupin, but
does not share that lesson with the DA, who never get to practice with
a boggart dementor.

Pippin