Selfless Harry (was Dumbledore's Unspeakable Word)

[carolynwhite2]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "naamagatus" <naama_gat at h...> 
wrote: 
> 
> The pardigamtic moment for me is in PS - the jump into a black pit. 
> Hermione and Ron have the normal reaction - peeping  in, recoiling, 
> presumably trying to gauge the depth, their chance of survival. 
Harry jumps in with *no hesitation*. > 
<snip>
 He is also not 
> afraid in CoS when it comes to going down the tunnel after Ginny. 

<snip>
> This is where Harry is different, better, than everybody else - 
when others are in danger he forgets about himself. At those moments, 
Harry is absolutely unconcerned about himself. He doesn't think about 
his chances of survival, about the danger to him. This cannot be 
reduced to an instinctual, implusive reaction - that he sees somebody 
in danger and leaps without thinking. When people need to be rescued, 
he goes into a long, sustained rescue mission, giving him plenty of 
time to realize the danger he put himself in.
> 

Carolyn:
Erm, it's worth re-reading the CoS scene a little more carefully, I 
think before we get too carried away admiring the lad.

'The sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe 
exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.
'Harry heard Ron gasp and looked up again. He had made up his mind 
what he was going to do.
'I'm going down there,' he said.
...
'Me too' said Ron.
...
'He [Lockhart] put his hand on the door knob, but Ron and Harry both 
pointed their wands at him.
'You can go first,' Ron snarled.
...
'Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs 
into the pipe.
'I really don't think - ' he started to say, but Ron gave him a push, 
and he slid out of sight.
...

Far from selfless bravery on this occasion, Harry not only encourages 
Ron into danger, but makes someone else go first. Easy to overlook 
because no one could care less about Lockhart, but true nonetheless. 

Also, remember that all of them are magical and don't face exactly 
the same physical dangers from jumping heedlessly into deep, dark 
pits as we would (in the same way that Neville came to no harm when 
Uncle Algie dropped him out the window). 

And it is worth considering that at this point the boys have 
discovered Lockhart is a fraud and won't be much practical use,so 
what was the point of forcing him to come along anyway? Yes, amusing 
retribution, plot device etc but an example of Harry's clear-
thinking, brave decisiveness? I don't think so.

Once you factor all this in, Harry's exploits are really more Tom & 
Jerry in style, and not half as impressive.


Carolyn