[the_old_crowd] Re: Genre WAS: That Bloody Man Again

[susiequsie23]

Pippin:
> But if I had to hazard a guess now, it's not that Harry's never 
> been cruel or selfish, because he has. But he's never wanted to
> hurt anyone who he thought cared about him, or anyone he thought 
> was weaker than himself. He's been that way from the beginning. 
> He's also never intentionally misused his powers, though once or 
> twice he's attempted it.  Still, when  he failed with the
> cruciatus curse, he did not try to find somebody to teach it to
> him.

Jen: I buy it, because it's not about Harry's day-to-day activities 
and imperfections--we see he's pretty average and capable of all the 
usual human frailities.

Harry's pure soul and ability to love are important in magical 
terms, not Muggle ones. These concepts are vastly important to the 
connection between Harry and Voldemort. Dumbledore considers Harry 
remarkable because he shouldn't be who he *is*. He was cursed by the 
most evil wizard ever and marked by the experience like no wizard 
before him, then denied his true identity for 11 long years. 

At Hogwarts, Harry has been touched by evil hands, entered the 
Chamber of Secrets, been targeted and sucked by Dementors, forced to 
give up his blood for Voldemort's re-birthing and ultimately 
possessed by Voldemort. Yet he remains pure. To pass so closely to 
evil, to even be possessed by it, yet never be drawn to it, must 
signal something important in the terms Dumbledore speaks of 
as "magic at its deepest, its most inpentrable."

Harry does not have to be supremely magically powerful, or perfectly 
behaved, for his pure soul to cause the demise of Voldemort. 
Voldemort seems to be taking care of that part himself :). Each time 
he attempts to thwart or kill Harry by deeply evil means, the 
rejection seems to increase Harry's 'ability to love' in the sense 
that he grows more & more able to repel Voldemort. Harry also 
increases his ability to draw magical help to himself, and not 
always in the form of a more skilled wizard, either. He was 
completely alone in the graveyard and still managed to escape 
because both the Phoenix song and the mere *echos* of Voldemort's 
victims were drawn to help him. Contrast that with the ambiguously 
loyal DE's helping Voldemort that night. The power of love, indeed.


SSSusan:
And I'm going to piggy-back onto this w/ something I posted at TOL today.  I'm totally w/ what Pippin said at the start of her paragraph:  it's NOT that Harry's never been cruel or selfish, because he HAS.  But he also has a capacity to care for others, to be empathetic.  NOT always, and not with EVERYONE, but especially in situations where he *sees* something which sheds light on a person's history.

This particular bit was written in response to someone thinking Harry will triumph by loving his enemies.  I'm not prepared to go quite that far, but....

And consider this... perhaps... as potential support for your view:
How did Harry respond to a couple of his/DD's pensieve adventures?

First, there was the point where, after learning Merope had died in
childbirth, Harry asked, "She wouldn't even stay alive for her son?"
and DD in turn asked Harry, "Could you possibly be feeling sorry for
Lord Voldemort?"

Now, I do *not* think DD was scoffing at Harry nor criticizing him;
rather, I think he was dead on about what Harry was feeling and
actually appreciative of that gut reaction. Granted, Harry's
response to the question was "No," but was that the truth?? Or was
DD correct, that Harry had been "caught" feeling sympathy -- or even
empathy -- for a baby who lost his mother? EVEN a baby whom Harry
KNEW to be Tom Riddle/Voldemort, a baby who grew up to be his own
parents' murderer and his own sworn enemy? An interesting
possibility, in my book.

The other scene came earlier, when DD & Harry had, via pensieve,
visited the Gaunts in their home, and Harry had witnessed Marvolo's
abusive behavior towards Merope. When they returned from the memory,
IIRC, Harry's very first question to DD was, "What happened to her?"
Again, he *knows* who this woman is - he knows she's the mother of
Lord Voldemort - and yet his first instinct was to ask what happened
to her, and in a way which I know *I* took as a concerned-for-her-
welfare kind of way.

Is this just curiosity? Perhaps. But Harry seems to be able to set
aside the kind of spiteful/vengeful/hate-filled responses one might
*expect* from him when viewing memories of Tom Riddle & his family,
and shows, instead, an inkling of compassion and concern.

I'm not saying this is something *consistent* we see in Harry.
Heaven knows that when it comes to Draco/Crabbe/Goyle/Slytherins and
to Snape, he's certainly quite ready to jump to quick conclusions
about their natures/actions/motives and to be pleased as punch should
anything nasty or negative befall them.

And yet... when it comes to Tom Riddle, the man he should MOST
despise and hate and want revenge upon, we see these little glimmers
of what might be... sympathy? empathy? compassion? I find that
interesting and compelling. Love for his enemy? I'm not sure. But
he certainly seems able to be moved by what he *sees* and *hears*
about TR's early life. (He was also moved by *seeing* how his dad
had treated teenaged Snape.) Perhaps with TR it's the similarity to
his own early life, but whatever it is, the fact that he could notice
it and even be somewhat moved by it -- that he didn't laugh "HAHA!
Look what happened to that evil family, they got exactly what they
deserved!"-- given that it's Tom Riddle, seems potentially
significant to me.

If this seems really a stretch, consider this. How did Lord
Voldemort react when faced with James, Lily & Harry at Godric's
Hollow? Apparently, according to Voldy himself, he had no difficulty
at all in AKing them all. (There was that enigmatic "Stand aside"
and "She didn't have to die," but we're not sure what was behind
that.) There certainly didn't seem to be any self-reflection or
pausing to compare the similarities in his own life to what he was
doing to Harry. :-)

Yet when Harry discovers the details about TR's family and how he was
orphaned, he shows interest... a willingness to compare & contrast
their situations, maybe... and possibly even a little compassion.

Potentially very telling, that.

JKR has said:
"But Harry is also innately honorable. He's not a cruel boy."
[Booklinks, July 1999]

"Harry, Ron and Hermione are innately good people. [Washington Post,
Oct. 1999]

Is there "Something About Harry"? Is that Something compassion or an
ability to empathize, even with his enemy?

Siriusly Snapey Susan


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