my dislike of the character of Harry potter

[chocedric.livejournal.com]

Hello all,

I am new to Deathtocapslock, and I've wanted to get this off my chest for ages. Other than the V.E.N.O.M. forums on Fictionalley Park, I thought this would be the perfect place to vent. This post is going to be very snarky and sarcastic, so please bear with me.

My dislike for the character of Harry started in book 5, but back
then, I still had hope for him. But, no. All my hopes were dashed. But let me explain.

First, he yells at Ron and Hermione when he arrives at Grimmauld Place. I was willing to cut him at least a little slack at this point, for he did, after all, witness the death of a fellow student and have to bring his body back. But, the thing that annoyed me was the fact that he tried to convince us that it was his own skill that got him out of the situation when it was only the fact that his wand was the brother of Voldemort's. If it wasn't for that, he'd have been dead just like Cedric. And that is the crux of the matter. Cedric didn't die because he was stupid or talentless. He died because he wasn't expecting to have Avada Kedavra cast on him at that second, and that spell doesn't leave much time to dodge. It's unblockable, as Alastor Moody told us.

But what really, really pissed me off was the Harry/Cho date. Yes, I admit I'm biased, for I am a true Cho/Cedric shipper and really think they had a wonderful relationship until they
were viciously torn apart.

But on the date with Cho, Harry's behavior was just abominable. Imagine for a second that you are Cho. You see this boy, who is a year younger than you, bring your boyfriend back to Hogwarts. They both go crashing to the ground, and you run over to see what the problem is. When you get there, you see someone who you love with a look of shock and fear upon his face. The expression is literally just frozen there, his sightless, lifeless eyes staring at the night sky. Then, to add insult to injury, everyone starts screaming the obvious: "Dead! Dead! Diggory's dead!"

Your grief is unimaginable. Girls your age should be worried about Quidditch and grades, not the boy you love being brutally murdered. And then, no one tells you what the hell's going on! The Headmaster of your school makes a speech telling you that your boyfriend was murdered by a wizard who has been believed to be dead for thirteen freaking years. You have the whole summer to ruminate on this as well as try to get past your grief. The Daily Prophet and the Ministry are telling you that the boy who brought his body back is lying and is just seeking attention. But despite that, you believe he's telling the truth.

Then, the next year, you join a group dedicated to fighting against the dark arts. But whenever anyone, like Zacharias Smith, brings up the subject of Cedric, they are shot down with an "I don't want to talk about it." You understand, for you know he must be traumatized by what happened, and people express grief in different ways. Some people want to talk and let out their feelings, while others do not.

You try to get to know him better. You don't want to hurt him, but you desperately want to know what Cedric's last moments were like. You heard stories of the First War, you heard that victims were often tortured before they were killed. Did your boyfriend di in pain? Did he scream for help? Was there anything, ANYTHING, Harry could have done to save his wasted life?

It's true you've been crying a lot lately, but who wouldn't in your position? To top it all off, almost all the friends you had last year deserted you because you're not the happy, smiling girl you once were. all you have now is your faithful friend Marietta.

You finally get Harry alone, and when you ask him about Cedric, he still doesn't want to talk about it. By this point you're just plain angry. You did your best to understand his point of view, but he's simply not telling you anything, and changes the subject to Quidditch! He then says, when you get tears in your eyes, that he explained to Ron and Hermione what happened.

Okay.

All right. So now, from Cho's position, he told his friends what happened to Cedric, but he didn't have the decency to tell the girl who loved him, who was a major part of his life. Then he had the nerve to laugh when Cho said something about Hermione. I admit that he must have found Cho's jealousy bewildering, for he was a clueless teenage boy, but to laugh in the face of someone's grief? Despicable. Then he mutters "Women!" and compares her to a human hosepipe as Cho leaves the coffee shop in tears!

At this point I wanted to reach through the pages and slap Harry, hard, and I'm not a violent person by nature. I was just simply disgusted by the way Harry handled this situation. Couldn't he see it from anyone else's pov, especially from the pov of the girl who loved Cedric?

Then, the Marietta thing irked me to no freaking end. We don't know why she did what she did. Maybe she was tortured by Umbridge! Maybe her mother's job was threatened! We simply have no idea! Later, when Cho sticks up for her, he gets really angry! But I definitely see a reason why she would have done so. According to what we see, Marietta was the only person who stuck with Cho through her tears. I bet she was the only one who comforted her after nightmares of the man she loved's sightless eyes, that look of shock and fear and vulnerability upon his handsome face. I know I sound a bit melodramatic, but I know if I suffered the loss of my boyfriend at that age, and especially to a senseless murder, it would have taken me ages to get over it. Maybe I still wouldn't be over it now, and I'm now 24!

Then, Harry has the gall to smirk at Marietta's pain the following year when it was said that she still had the pimples. Not to mention the fact that he wholeheartedly agreed with the punishment the year before!

Then, Mr. Dumbass Potter uses a spell on Draco that is entitled Sectumsempra and has the note "For enemies." When Snape gives him detention, the little jerk starts whining about the fact that he's going to miss a Quidditch game. I'm sorry, but this is disgusting. Harry almost killed a fellow student and he can only think about Quidditch? This kid's lack of remorse knows no bounds.

And don't even get me started on the trainwreck that is Harry/Ginny. All he cares about are her firewhiskey kisses and her dancing, flaming red hair. They never share a meaningful conversation and no, I'm not counting the pathetic breakup scene. God, their relationship is so shallow. Ginny goes around hexing anyone who disagrees with Harry and the holier-than-thou Gryffindors, and she defends him when he's almost killed Draco!

And it doesn't get any better in Deathly Hallows. I was hoping Harry would come to learn that there was give and take in a relationship rather than just take take take on his side. I was hoping he'd come to learn to really love her and care about more than her appearance and kisses.

But, noooooo. Instead, at the end of DH, we get, in my opinion, next to the Harry/Cho date, the most diabolical scene in the entire series. It's true that I don't like Ginny, but even I have to feel sorry for her in this scene. She's got her head lying on her mother's shoulder, and she's grieving for her brother who's just been brutally murdered. And what does the supposed love of her life do? He walks right on by, being the most selfish prat he could be. He doesn't care one bit about her grief, it's the Cho situation all over again, folks! She's not snogging material right now because she's crying, according to Harry's probable thought process, so he doesn't care. I know you don't like wet kisses, Harry, but grow the bloody hell up! She's grieving for a member of her family! If she, by some infinitesemal chance, does feel like snogging, her kisses won't taste like firewhiskey, they'll taste like tears, and no, Harry can't have that. God forbid a woman show emotion in front of him!

I find it pretty ironic that Harry shouts at the end of book 5, "I DON'T WANT TO BE HUMAN!" because at the end of book 7, his wish has pretty much come true. He's more of a monster than a human being.

And according to JKR, Harry has an overwhelming capacity to love.

Excuse me while I snort with hysterical laughter.

I'm sure people are wondering why I even bother with this series, and to tell you the truth, I still love it because of the fanfiction, not canon. There are so many angles JKR did not explore, and so many authors touch on them. It's true she gave us a fascinating world to play with, but why did she have to make the hero such a selfish git?

Please respond and tell me whether you agree with any of my points, or whether you think I'm spewing all this venom just to spew it. I'm curious as to what you guys think. I'm sorry about how this post is so long, but I just had to get this off my chest. I only have a few more things to say, and then I'll be done, I promise.

As I've already said, I know I might come off as being overdramatic about the Cho/Cedric situation, but I truly think that not only losing a boyfriend, but having to see his limp, lifeless body, and having no one tell you what happened to him has to be one of the most traumatic things anyone can go through, let alone a teenage girl. Some people might say you can't fall in love at that age, but I think they're wrong. I am 24 now and I can still say I was in love when I was 12. The guy I was in love with was my first serious boyfriend. Yes, it's true that we've broken up now, but we were together for many yearrs. Some people were shocked that we lasted as long as we did, especially since we were so young.

I think it's weird how JKR handles Cho's grief because of Cedric's murder. Harry views it in a very negative light, and I think there's a major double standard going on here. Let's say, for example, that Ginny died in DH. Let's say the Carrows had gone too far and killed her in one of her detentions. Even though I am of the opinion that Harry didn't care for her like Cho cared for Cedric, I'm sure that if this scenario had happened, JKR would write it as this powerful love story and it would be considered the worst tragedy ever that had happened to Harry. We'd be told to view his grief as completely understandable. I also think that with Cho, she handled Cedric's death with a lot of grace. It's true that she had an outburst in Madame Puddifoot's, but that was after months and months of no one telling her what he'd been through in his final moments. I'm sure that if it was Harry, he wouldn't be going off to cry in bathrooms and having occasional angry outbursts. He'd be caps locking all the time, shouting about how no one was telling him anything, and we'd be asked to see that as perfectly acceptable. I admit, if it was really shown that Harry loved Ginny, and if it wasn't for the Cho double standard, I'd cut Harry slack even if he acted this way, for people are sometimes unpredictable when they're grieving. That's the nature of sadness.

Lastly, I also think it's pretty twisted the way JKR handles things because she, herself, lost her mother while she was writing the books. You'd think someone in her situation would be more sympathetic. I'm sure there are times when she still grieves, and let's hope that no one sees her in tears and calls her a human hosepipe, right?