Harry Potter in general - Above and Below - and a bit of karma

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 190598

Geoff:
Having been away on holiday in "terra non-computera", I'm a bit slow in 
catching up on recent topics; indeed, someone may have already voiced 
some of these opinions and I've missed them.

In message 190571, Steve wrote:

"Notice one thing about all the people who died, they all stood above Harry. They
were all people Harry looked up to. The people who remained are all people who
looked up to Harry. They stood as his equals or, from a certain perspective, his
subordinates."

I'm sorry but I disagree with this conclusion. I would accept that there are 
some of those who died to whom Harry would look up but there are some 
for whom I would say the answer was "No". There are some whom Harry 
would certainly look on as equals or friends but I doubt that he would 
include Cedric, Colin Creevey or Fred as role models to follow."

On the subject of Cedric, in post 190542, Alla wrote:

"Except to me the HUGE difference is that Cedric did not have any choice in the 
matter, not a real choice. Everything was prearranged, so of course anybody who 
would have taken the cup would have suffered the same fate."

I do not think that Voldemort expected anyone other than Harry to take the 
cup. If his plans worked out through Barty Crouch had gone correctly, there 
would only be Harry. As someone pointed out, Harry's generosity in making 
Cedric share in the triumph unwittingly sealed his fate.

I believe that Cedric, to an extent, trod that path because of other demands  
and I see an interesting parallel between him and Draco. They are both young 
men who have been subjected to parental pressure. Amos Diggory is very 
anxious that his son should be better than the others and get the best 
results and is, on at least one occasion, rather disparaging about Harry's  
achievements and on occasions, I felt that Cedric was merely keeping 
going to avoid parental disapproval or disappointment. In a kind of 
mirror image scenario, Draco is in a similar position, certainly from HBP 
onward. He is under pressure to kill Dumbledore, under pressure from 
Lucius to identify Harry so that the family can benefit.

If the situations had given each a completely free choice of the way to go,
what might have happened? We know that Draco was wavering on the Tower 
and, given a couple of minutes more might well have accepted Dumbledore's 
offer and maybe Cedric might have insisted on Harry going alone.

Perhaps I should say that, as a Christian, I do not believe in karma; these were 
not predestined choices (except for JKR's story line needs of course!).