Reading HP Aloud -- OotP Chapter 1
I read Books 1-4 aloud to my husband just a couple months after GoF came out -- he enjoys the stories but doesn't read for pleasure -- and tonight we finally started on OotP. I have great fun doing this, because it appeals to the buried actress in me: I try to do as professional-sounding and nuanced a reading as possible, including all the voices
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Yes, Harry's shown anger and pride in previous books, but not so much when it came to his own accomplishments. In all the previous books he's been determined ("Nobody's going to do this, so I've got to") but also self-doubting in a lot of ways -- look at his attitude to being in the Triwizard Tournament, for instance, his fatalistic conviction that he's going to make a fool of himself or get himself killed. Ron and Hermione have always had to encourage and support him. And when praised for his heroism he's characteristically underplayed his own importance.
Now, however, he's angry that nobody's acknowledging how important he is or how much he's done. It's a very sudden change, I think -- too sudden to be accounted for by merely turning fifteen. And unlike depression or fear, it's not the kind of thing you could see as a natural outcome of Cedric's death and Voldemort's return. What about either one of those two things would be making Harry think more about himself and what he deserves?
I'm not saying I think Book 5 Harry is 100% Voldemort, or even 50%. Of necessity the influence has to be subtle, or Harry or his friends would notice and question it. As it is, Ron and Hermione are surprised, but they assume Harry's just "been through a lot lately". As does Harry himself.
No, I'd say it's more like 75% Harry and 25% Voldemort, with Voldemort playing on and enhancing parts of Harry (such as his desire for fame and glory) that would otherwise stay well below the surface. Yes, in many ways his behaviour is typical of a fifteen-year-old boy, but not in all ways, and I do think that JKR is telling us right from Chapter One (where she deliberately draws our attention to the fact that Harry's scar has been throbbing a lot lately) that after what happened in the graveyard -- specifically taking Harry's blood -- Voldemort is connected to Harry on a deeper level than ever before.
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