More DH Thoughts

[lightofdaye]

In lieu of actual writing. Because I have no ideas for anything at the moment. I'm just going to continue picking on stuff in Deathly Hallows. Doesn't that sound fun?

But one thing I frequently think about when re-reading these books is; boy does Harry use a lot of unforgivable curses. I mean at the end of OotS and HBP he uses them on Bellatrix and Snape respectively in attempted revenge for their killing on mentor figures. So that's sort of understandable.

Then during the Gringott's raid, he starts using more; the imperio curse on the goblin for example. Maybe again you can cite desperation or something. But the real kicker is its never addressed by anyone in the book that Harry's dabbling in Dark Magic. Something he's roundly condemned before. Even in cases like Barty Crouch Snr. who was using them against Death Eaters and the forces of evil, his approval of them was depicted as very wrong by the books.
But for unforgivable curses, Harry sure gets away with a lot of them with absolutely no comment from anyone who himself.

I guess its cool in a subtextual way, considering Harry has evil-soul in him, and he's falling to the dark side in a 'he who fights monsters...' sort of way. And his reversal to using a simple 'expelliarmus' in the finalé as a rejection of the dark arts.

But I don't know am I wrong for thinking this should be text? Rather than debatable subtext.

Comments

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

I have no thoughts. Except to say that Harry becomes a much more compelling hero to me when he dabbles.

Does McGonagall call him out for Crucio-ing Amycus Carrow? I don't remember. That was a wonderfully dark moment in our hero's journey.

[lightofdaye]

I think she pretty much says 'that was dumb' but more for revealing himself to the death eaters, than anything but you could be right.

[nutmeg-44.livejournal.com]

Nope. I'm right there with you. One of my issues as I've reread the books as an adult with a more expanded world view - since I originally read the book in the late 90's when they were first published - is that a lot of the actions taken by the trio (or people generally thought to be 'light') have been surprisingly 'dark', malicious or vengeful but have been excused, explained away or completely ignored, yet characters who were put in the 'dark' camp are practically ostracised and penalized for similar (and sometimes less serious) offences. With the exception of some detentions IIRC Harry is not brought to task in anyway for nearly killing Malfoy. A Malfoy who wasn't really doing anything at the time, I might add.

A lot of rose-coloured classes were used in the books where the 'light' side is concerned. This is probably why my stories tend to focus on the Slytherins. I feel like they need a friend, lol.