Programming Harry for Violence

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

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 )

Misjudging Tom: Apologies regarding GoF

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Upon reflection, Voldemort’s grandiose and utterly unnecessary kidnapping/murder scheme in GoF wasn’t actually as stupid as we thought. We fans criticized: Why not have Barty/Moody just toss the kid a Portkey in class? (Or, if witnesses mattered, any time Barty might corner Harry alone in the halls?)

We haven’t been thinking about how it would have seemed if Tom’s scheme had worked out the way he’d planned.

Tom didn’t just plot a random kidnapping/resurrection/murder, after all. He’d planned another frame. In his early career, remember, he never left home without one.

To paraphrase Lois McMaster Bujold, Memory, a frame is supposed to come with a picture in it. And we fans have been evaluating Tom’s plan in GoF without ever envisioning the picture Tom had originally intended to present sketched around Harry’s inviting corpse.

No one (except those conversant with the relevant literary convention and expecting it to apply in this case) could possibly have anticipated Potter’s survival, after all.

This post is due entirely to oneandthetruth’s suggestion that I should evaluate the Death Eater’s performance under Voldemort’s leadership in terms of how well they .achieved his stated goals.
( Only )