Programming Harry for Violence
Someone in the Mary-j-59 thread on prejudice against Muggles made me realize something. S/he pointed out that Harry never attacked the Dursleys in his childish magical outbreaks.
And I realized that this was true.
Potter, pre-Hogwarts, was a semi-pacifist. He apparently responded to Dudley’s bullying and the Dursley’s encouragement of that as “manly” by developing an aversion to being at all like that himself. He was perfectly willing to hit back when he was actually in a fight, but he refused to initiate violence. Instead, he enjoyed using his superior brainpower and speed to provoke Dudley verbally and then run away from retribution. You know, like Draco did-taunting Gryffindors, and being all taken aback when they responded to his words with physical violence or hexing.
Harry, pre-Hogwarts, really, really didn’t want to be like Dudley, hurting people for the fun of it. His sole (understandably so) standard of human decency was “not like Dudders.”
No wonder Harry responded so extremely to Draco: tripping Harry’s Dudley-triggers (spoiled only child of well-off parents, blandly expecting the universe to fall into his lap, and being casually cruel to those he felt beneath him), but USING HARRY”S OWN WEAPONS to do so-wit and speed, not crude force.
Draco presented an utterly monstrous image to Harry, combining the worst of Dudley’s privileged self-absorption with an unwelcome reflection of Harry’s the-underdog-is-justified-in-doing-anything practical ethics..
*
Now, Harry was simultaneously a bit of a passive-aggressive snot to his aunt and uncle, but who wouldn’t have been, under the circumstances? He knew perfectly well that the real rule of their household was “no funny stuff,” in word or deed. He might not have been consciously controlling his magical outbreaks (though I believe now that he was doing so subconsciously), but we did see him quite deliberately inject into Dudley’s birthday outing (that once-a-year family outing entirely away from the threat of being disturbed by the threat of Harry’s magical outbreaks) the conversational gambit of that flying motorcycle dream.
So sorry to disturb anyone’s image of widdle Saint Harry who would never dream of deliberately upsetting his guardians, however they might merit it, but … that brat knew EXACTLY how Uncle Vernon would react to Harry’s mention of such a dream. And Harry brought it up, all unprovoked.
(All right, I have to say it: Good for Harry, there! Shows his instincts are still all right: quand on l’attaque, il se defend! )
(The problem, if there is one, is that the reader is not invited to understand that Harry was striking out against the Dursleys be simply telling that dream. Deliberately attacking them for their little-mindedness. Proportionately and deservedly. Which makes, for example, Hagrid’s subsequent vicious physical attack upon a little boy to punish the boy’s father for a little-minded insult to Dumbledore seem a tad… unbalanced.)
*
Now, look at what Harry DID do magically, pre-Hogwarts: shrank a sweater he didn’t want to wear (not sting Aunt Petunia when she tried to force it on him). Consistently regrew his hair magically, in defiance of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. (Annoying them immensely, but certainly not hurting them-but note, please, that he was not doing it to save himself humiliation. It was only the one time, when Petunia went nuts with the scissors trying to control that uncontrollable hair, that the result of the magical regrowth looked better than the haircut itself. Most of the time, Harry told us, the result of Harry’s magical intervention was that Harry came “back from the barbers looking as though he hadn’t been at all.” Classic passive-aggressive provocation, in dealing with neat freaks like Petunia and Vernon!. I’d have done it myself to my mom, had I had Harry’s magical ability! As it was, I had to content myself with consistently “forgetting” the dance lessons she wanted me to take, to teach me grace. And her instructions on on how to wear the clothes she picked for me. Not nearly so effective as growing my hair to be deliberately messy all the time!) Levitated away when Dudley’s gang was chasing him. But nothing that could harm others at all, not even in self-defense.
Even when Harry was attacked by a mere dog whose tail he’d stepped on, his response was to climb a tree away from it, not to try to frighten the dog off by hurting it.
But then Harry got Sorted into Gryffindor, and was relentlessly exposed to Gryff programming that the Dursleys’ standards of manliness had been right, that using violence against others was courageous and praiseworthy. (NEVER-INSULT-ALBUS-DUMBLEDORE IN FRONT OF ME! You’ve got to stand up for yourself, Neville! Fifty points to Gryffindor for killing Quirrell, Harry! That’s the spirit, Ron, trying to hex Draco for a verbal insult, and you too, Fred and George, trying to jump a little boy! Only a true Gryffindor would have pulled a sword out of a hat and killed a Basilisk, rather than, say, using his snake-talking abilities to try if, like the black snake, it could be persuaded not to attack humans….)
And after two years of relentless programming, we finally see Harry let loose his magic to attack Aunt Marge when she insulted (yet again, yawn-how often has he listened to this dreck in the last decade?) his dead parents.
Dumbledore must have been SO relieved by the incident-he’d finally managed to break the boy’s aversion to inflicting physical harm on others. Now to be sure that the boy’s rewarded properly for his outburst…..
And I realized that this was true.
Potter, pre-Hogwarts, was a semi-pacifist. He apparently responded to Dudley’s bullying and the Dursley’s encouragement of that as “manly” by developing an aversion to being at all like that himself. He was perfectly willing to hit back when he was actually in a fight, but he refused to initiate violence. Instead, he enjoyed using his superior brainpower and speed to provoke Dudley verbally and then run away from retribution. You know, like Draco did-taunting Gryffindors, and being all taken aback when they responded to his words with physical violence or hexing.
Harry, pre-Hogwarts, really, really didn’t want to be like Dudley, hurting people for the fun of it. His sole (understandably so) standard of human decency was “not like Dudders.”
No wonder Harry responded so extremely to Draco: tripping Harry’s Dudley-triggers (spoiled only child of well-off parents, blandly expecting the universe to fall into his lap, and being casually cruel to those he felt beneath him), but USING HARRY”S OWN WEAPONS to do so-wit and speed, not crude force.
Draco presented an utterly monstrous image to Harry, combining the worst of Dudley’s privileged self-absorption with an unwelcome reflection of Harry’s the-underdog-is-justified-in-doing-anything practical ethics..
*
Now, Harry was simultaneously a bit of a passive-aggressive snot to his aunt and uncle, but who wouldn’t have been, under the circumstances? He knew perfectly well that the real rule of their household was “no funny stuff,” in word or deed. He might not have been consciously controlling his magical outbreaks (though I believe now that he was doing so subconsciously), but we did see him quite deliberately inject into Dudley’s birthday outing (that once-a-year family outing entirely away from the threat of being disturbed by the threat of Harry’s magical outbreaks) the conversational gambit of that flying motorcycle dream.
So sorry to disturb anyone’s image of widdle Saint Harry who would never dream of deliberately upsetting his guardians, however they might merit it, but … that brat knew EXACTLY how Uncle Vernon would react to Harry’s mention of such a dream. And Harry brought it up, all unprovoked.
(All right, I have to say it: Good for Harry, there! Shows his instincts are still all right: quand on l’attaque, il se defend! )
(The problem, if there is one, is that the reader is not invited to understand that Harry was striking out against the Dursleys be simply telling that dream. Deliberately attacking them for their little-mindedness. Proportionately and deservedly. Which makes, for example, Hagrid’s subsequent vicious physical attack upon a little boy to punish the boy’s father for a little-minded insult to Dumbledore seem a tad… unbalanced.)
*
Now, look at what Harry DID do magically, pre-Hogwarts: shrank a sweater he didn’t want to wear (not sting Aunt Petunia when she tried to force it on him). Consistently regrew his hair magically, in defiance of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. (Annoying them immensely, but certainly not hurting them-but note, please, that he was not doing it to save himself humiliation. It was only the one time, when Petunia went nuts with the scissors trying to control that uncontrollable hair, that the result of the magical regrowth looked better than the haircut itself. Most of the time, Harry told us, the result of Harry’s magical intervention was that Harry came “back from the barbers looking as though he hadn’t been at all.” Classic passive-aggressive provocation, in dealing with neat freaks like Petunia and Vernon!. I’d have done it myself to my mom, had I had Harry’s magical ability! As it was, I had to content myself with consistently “forgetting” the dance lessons she wanted me to take, to teach me grace. And her instructions on on how to wear the clothes she picked for me. Not nearly so effective as growing my hair to be deliberately messy all the time!) Levitated away when Dudley’s gang was chasing him. But nothing that could harm others at all, not even in self-defense.
Even when Harry was attacked by a mere dog whose tail he’d stepped on, his response was to climb a tree away from it, not to try to frighten the dog off by hurting it.
But then Harry got Sorted into Gryffindor, and was relentlessly exposed to Gryff programming that the Dursleys’ standards of manliness had been right, that using violence against others was courageous and praiseworthy. (NEVER-INSULT-ALBUS-DUMBLEDORE IN FRONT OF ME! You’ve got to stand up for yourself, Neville! Fifty points to Gryffindor for killing Quirrell, Harry! That’s the spirit, Ron, trying to hex Draco for a verbal insult, and you too, Fred and George, trying to jump a little boy! Only a true Gryffindor would have pulled a sword out of a hat and killed a Basilisk, rather than, say, using his snake-talking abilities to try if, like the black snake, it could be persuaded not to attack humans….)
And after two years of relentless programming, we finally see Harry let loose his magic to attack Aunt Marge when she insulted (yet again, yawn-how often has he listened to this dreck in the last decade?) his dead parents.
Dumbledore must have been SO relieved by the incident-he’d finally managed to break the boy’s aversion to inflicting physical harm on others. Now to be sure that the boy’s rewarded properly for his outburst…..