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

[Lyn J. Mangiameli]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> wrote:
  
<snip>
> 
> Riddle's trajectory is somewhat understandable after finding out he 
> received little to nothing in the nature OR nurture department, plus 
> the fact no one intervened with his cognitive distortions. Like when 
> he concluded his mom couldn't have been a witch because she died--uh-
> oh, look where that idea went when given free rein! Whatever 
> Dumbledore hoped would happen at Hogwarts, Riddle never gave up on 
> believing he could use magic to hurt people. His path to becoming a 
> murderer was well-charted, I thought.
> 
Lyn now:
I think there is an underlying theme throughout the series that boarding schools lack 
some essential elements necessary to healthy development as a person. Nowhere is the 
more evident than with Riddle and Harry. DD knew the problems for each, but was rather 
limited in his role (though not necessarily his caring) to deal with them. Same goes for 
many of the other teachers such as McGonnagol. Snape is the extreme example of the 
detachment, Lupin the exception. Interestingly, JKR has said the Lupin is her model of the  
best sort of teacher (or words to this effect). Back to Riddle, JKR I suspect quite 
deliberately choose to show the boarding school to be as poorly suited for dealing with 
one's inner troubles as the orphanage.  

<snip> 
> No, I still think Dumbledore's 'whole soul' comment is referring to 
> the siren song of dark magic, and Harry's ability to resist the road 
> where so many before him, like Riddle and Snape, could not. Resist 
> so far, I should say, as suddenly the lure of the 'dark magic equals 
> power' equation is getting difficult to give up. 

<snip>

Lyn again:
Yes, nowhere till now has it been illustrated more clearly how Harry is vulnerable to the 
Dark Arts. Remember back to SS/PS when the Sorting h=Hat noted Harry's "nice thirst to 
prove yourself, now that's interesting."  After years of Snape creating the conditions for 
Harry to appear-both to himself and publicly-- to fail at Potions (though by his OWLs, he 
really wasn't), in HBP he shows that "thirst to prove himself" and bask in the attention. As 
I've said before, I think may foreshadows events in #7 when Harry will have to run away 
from LV before all the HXs are destroyed, and face public derision, as only Harry will know 
the necessity for his actions. Will the "thirst to prove himself" torment his actions, and the 
one's that follow. Just a thought. 
> 
> The Choices idea is very slim indeed after HBP. Harry may only have 
> the choice to walk into the arena chin-up or be dragged, 

Lyn again:
Yep, very much like in the Graveyard, and we know what he decided there.

<snip>  
> Jen: The biography of Riddle is definitely for the Horcrux search, 
> something Dumbledore seems to think Harry is uniquely qualified for 
> or he would train someone else. As for the killin' part, well HBP 
> convinced me all roads lead to self-sacrifice, something Harry is 
> also uniguely qualified for, capable of and requires no training 
> for ;). Part of me holds out hope for something trickier, even 
> though the theme is woven throughout the text, and the explanations 
> for how each character will act are evident: We have Harry on one 
> side with no fear of death but only average magical power, and 
> Voldemort on the other side with an all-consuming obsession with 
> defeating death and immense magical power. Who is more powerful in 
> the end, the one with everything to lose or the one with nothing? 

Lyn now:
Two thinks here. First, I would toss out that perhaps the only one (s) to be able to safely 
dismantle a HX is the one(s) who already possess a portion of that soul. Thus, if Harry 
does indeed incorporate a portion of the TR soul, then he is safely able to deal with the 
HX.

Second, though somewhat tangetial to your point, is my frustration with the JKR 
inconsistancies in what are to be Harry's powers. On one hand we have the boy the lived, 
the boy who flew so extremely well without lessons, the one Hermione says is a "Great 
Wizard," and most of all, the one whose will and power exceeded Voldemorte's in the 
Graveyard when they were placed in direct contest to each other. On the other hand, we 
have all these statements of Harry's mediocrity, are usually shown him displaying rather 
mediore powers, and we have DD noting in the boat that Harry's powers compared to his 
were indescernable.  So, which is it.

> 
> The truth is, no ending seems satisfying to me now. When Talisman 
> and Carolyn mention the hope of Puppetmaster!Dumbledore coming to 
> light in book 7, well it would harken back to the day, wouldn't it? 
> When GoF was out and the possibilities were endless? Part of me 
> wouldn't mind that either, but only because I don't want this ship 
> to dock yet. Talisman and Carolyn may have other reasons for it ;).

Lyn once more:

Yes, this captures my fears pretty well, also

<snip> 
> And hoo-boy, Harry sure does have a dark secret from himself--how 
> very much like Snape he really is.  


Lyn:
Yes!  I think that was one of the slowly developing, under the radar BANGS of the last 
couple of books. If Harry divorces himself from his friends (as he considered at the end of 
OOTP and with Ginny at the end of HBP), for whatever reason, that is the road he could 
follow. I suspect DD is aware of this, and is one of the reasons (along with the boarding 
school failings) that is why DD does work to encourage Harry to maintain his relationships 
with healthy others.