'Clue to his vulnerability' (Coming to a conclusion )

[nkafkafi]

> Jen: 
> From Harry's example we find out a magical person doesn't have to be
> perfectly well behaved to have an untarnished soul!

Neri:
I think Dumbledore's words "a soul that is whole and untarnished"
should be taken in the context in which they were said. The context
was Voldy's ripped soul. By "whole and untarnished soul" Dumbledore
simply means that Harry didn't commit murder, despite having some good
personal reasons to do it.

So as a whole Dumbledore doesn't say Harry is some kind of a saint.
Canon pretty much establishes that Harry is far from that. He's just a
basically decent person who doesn't murder people. He can love, but so
can most of the other characters and most of us, so this isn't A Big
Deal by itself. The Big Deal is that he can still love *despite*
everything that happened to him.

The "despite" here is the important part. I find it instructive that
Dumbledore, while explaining to Harry that "it will take uncommon
skill and power to kill a wizard like Voldemort even without his
Horcruxes", never actually teaches Harry any skill. Only during the
sixth year he finally gives Harry some privet tutoring, and even then
it's not "really advanced defensive magic 
 powerful countercurses

anti-jinxes" as Hermione naturally conjectures. It's only the
biography of Voldemort. Why doesn't Dumbledore ever teach Harry
something *useful*?

Obviously, because he believes Harry already knows everything he'll
need. Harry was marked by the Dark Lord as his *equal*, remember?
Dumbledore thinks that Harry is a most dangerous wizard, that he
possesses uniquely deadly weapons, that Voldemort himself handed him
all the needed tools. He says all that in HBP Ch. 23 with plenty of
exclamation marks for emphasis. Look:    

 "Voldemort singled you out as the person who would be most dangerous
to him — and in doing so, he made you the person who would be most
dangerous to him!" 

"He heard the prophecy and he leapt into action, with the result that
he not only handpicked the man most likely to finish him, he handed
him uniquely deadly weapons!"

"By attempting to kill you, Voldemort himself singled out the
remarkable person who sits here in front of me, and gave him the tools
for the job! It is Voldemort's fault that you were able to see into
his thoughts, his ambitions, that you even understand the snakelike
language in which he gives orders."

When the time of the final match finally arrives, Dumbledore fully
expect (or perhaps the word is "afraid") that Harry will hit Voldy
with every power in Voldy's own arsenal.  The love part isn't really
needed for vanquishing the Dark Lord. It's needed for protecting Harry
from becoming the Dark Lord's servant, or worse, the next Dark Lord.
Dumbledore says that too, immediately after the previous words, with
some additional exclamation marks: 

"You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!" said
Dumbledore loudly. "The only protection that can possibly work against
the lure of power like Voldemort's!

Voldy's power can only be a "lure" if it's power that Harry already
possesses, or will possess if he's ever "seduced by the Dark Arts"
(again, Dumbledore's words, one paragraph before).
 
And it appears Snape too suspects Harry's powers. In the occlumeny
"lessons" he never actually attempts to *teach* Harry occlumeny, he
tries to shake it out of him. He sees no point in teaching Harry
occlumency because Harry doesn't stand a chance of ever becoming the
Dark Lord's equal, unless he already *is*. Snape knows that Harry
showed an ability to resist Imperius. He heard Harry speaking
Parseltongue. He knows Harry escaped Voldemort several times. By
rattling Harry in the occlumency lessons he was attempting to awaken
the powers that might be hidden in there. He probably wanted to
unearth the proof that Harry is The One, that he is really the Dark
Lord's equal, and that Snape has a chance to end up on the winning
side by sticking with Dumbledore. Dumbledore himself was much wiser
than that. Better not awaken *those* powers until they're absolutely
needed. *One* Dark Lord is quite enough to contend with.

> Sherry wrote:
> Oh dear!  If I could only know in advance that Snape will be the
moral core
> of the series in the end, I could stop reading the damn thing all
together.
> Funny, though I debate that he is evil, because I believe he most
definitely
> murdered Dumbledore, i am so uninterested in Snape as a character. 
I don't
> care about his back story, nor his turmoil, nor his spying or
anything else.
> He has abused children, his students, and to me, he isn't a bit
interesting
> or complex because of it.  if it has to turn into Snape's story in
the end,
> i would long to know in advance, so I can throw out the books and find
> something else to obsess over!
> 

Neri:
While I find Snape interesting enough, I really don't see why many
readers think he's a more interesting character than Harry. Does Snape
ask himself if he has to do something because it's fated or because
it's his own choice? Does he ever wonder if he's still himself? Does
he search his memory for blank periods? Does he have to be told by
others that he had just spoke a language that he didn't know even
existed? Snape is interesting because he keeps secrets from us. Harry
tells us everything he knows, and still he has dark secrets even from
himself.

Neri