DD on "choice" (was: Tonks again)

[susiequsie23]

SSSusan earlier: 
<snip possible connections between Draco & Tonks>
> What is this connection?  Is all of it just
> happenstance?  Can 1) & 2) really be explained away as
> Tonks just keeping an eye on Harry?  Maybe... but
> something about it all seems "off" to me.  And 3)
> makes me think there is SOMETHING we're supposed to be
> noticing.


Kneasy replied:
That's encouraging.
SSS, normally amongst the most trusting of souls is also donating
the icy optic to Tonks.

IIRC there have been two possibilities mentioned for Ringer!Tonks -
Narcissa and Andromeda. Both are blood relations of Draino, which
could explain any physical  similarities as family resemblances.
Every little helps.


SSSusan again:
Heh heh.  Come now, Kneasy, you're being too kind.  You know you *really* wanted to call me "naive," now, didn't you? ;-)

Which brings up something I thought of again last night as I continued my (still-first) re-read.  

Kneasy, one area where you & I discussed -- and disagreed -- over at TOL concerned the degree of "real choice" Harry has had in the books.  This was discussed, iirc, primarily in terms of your view that DD is pretty much Puppetmaster!DD.  And your position, again iirc, was that Harry did not have REAL choice by and large because his range of options was so narrow because of DD's doings & his stress on the prophecy and all.

As I read the section which occurs on US pp. 510-512, where DD & Harry discuss the significance of the prophecy -- esp. its significance to Harry vs. its significance to Voldy, and its significance in terms of Harry's having CHOICE -- I thought back to that and wondered whether you might have been royally displeased with this pronouncement of DD's:

"You see, the prophecy does not mean you *have* to do anything!  But the prophecy caused Lord Voldemort to *mark you as his equal*....  In other words, you are free to choose your way, quite free to turn your back on the prophecy!  But Voldemort continues to set store by the prophecy.  He will continue to hunt you... which makes it certain, really, that--"

"That one of us is going to end up killing the other," said Harry.  "Yes."

But he understood at last what DD had been trying to tell him.  It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high.  Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but DD knew -- *and so do I,* thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, *and so did my parents* -- that there was all the difference in the world.  [p.512]


Now, I would never have found the words to have expressed it this way, but this *is* pretty much what my take has been all along regarding the choices Harry has had -- that the range of choice may have been narrow, but that within that range, he has had *real* choice.  I know that that answer did not satisfy you back when, Kneasy.  No obligation to respond now, of course -- but I did think of you when I read this and wondered whether this was a disappointment or felt like a cop-out to you.  (Or to anyone else here, for that matter.)

Siriusly Snapey Susan, a fairly naive & trusting soul ;-)



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