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The Power of Love, A look at love as a theme in Harry Potter
twiddlethosedial...
post Jan 24 2009, 10:52 PM
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The Power of Love
A look at love as a theme in Harry Potter

fan art by the lovely and talented Makani



Even before Harry himself is aware of it, love is instrumental to his very life. Had his mother not loved him enough to stand in front of him when death was certain, he wouldn't be the Boy Who Lived. But it continues to be so important as to perhaps even be the key to the books.

After all, if Harry weren't pained by his love for Sirius after his loss, Voldemort might have won the war. And if Dumbledore hadn't loved Harry so much, he might have told him sooner the fate that awaited him. It's the love from Harry's mother that protects him until he is old enough to fight back on his own.

There is plenty of love to be found in the books - romantic love, parental love and a more general brotherly love to name a few. Even within the many other themes the books touch on (prejudice, trust, etc.), love plays a role in each.

Let's talk about the importance of love in the Potterverse. These are a few suggested questions to get you started - but remember, they're just suggestions! You can come up with your own or make your own observations.

1) Why do you think love created such a physical pain whenever Voldemort came in contact with Harry?

2) A mother's love in particular is a big theme - Lily, Molly and Narcissa are the most prominent examples. How does Molly's love for her children compare to Lily's? How is it different? How is their love for their children different from Narcissa's? Is any mother's love better than any other's?

3) Of the various romances in the books (Ron and Hermione, Harry and Ginny, Cho and Cedric, etc), whose is the strongest bond? Whose is the weakest? (Canon ships only, please!)

4) Harry experiences the love of a father from several people who are not his parents - Hagrid, Dumbledore, Lupin, Arthur and Sirius. How does each of them love Harry like a father would? Why do they love him this way?

5) We now know that Dumbledore's love for another person blinded him such that he didn't see the dark side of what he was doing in his youth. In what ways is love blind in Harry Potter?

6) If the dead we love never truly leave us, how long does love last?

*For more fun discussion threads like this, please join us in the Lily and Stag Inn! Click on the link in your sidebar to sort for our current reading of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*


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ShanksForte
post Feb 14 2009, 09:10 AM
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1) Why do you think love created such a physical pain whenever Voldemort came in contact with Harry?

That was the link with voldermort, not love, right?

2) A mother's love in particular is a big theme - Lily, Molly and Narcissa are the most prominent examples. How does Molly's love for her children compare to Lily's? How is it different? How is their love for their children different from Narcissa's? Is any mother's love better than any other's?

In fact, most of the "love" in the books is parental love. You can tell Jo really missed her parents.


3) Of the various romances in the books (Ron and Hermione, Harry and Ginny, Cho and Cedric, etc), whose is the strongest bond? Whose is the weakest? (Canon ships only, please!)

Ron and Hermoine is the strongest. It kind of seems like they always understood eachother. The weakest was Harry and Cho, they didn't really have a strong foundation. They both liked Quidditch and Harry likes them asian women, and she needed someone post-Cedric, but it's not like they had the formula for a long lasting relatiionship

4) Harry experiences the love of a father from several people who are not his parents - Hagrid, Dumbledore, Lupin, Arthur and Sirius. How does each of them love Harry like a father would? Why do they love him this way?

I think they all think of Harry as a young version of themselves. You'll notice that not a single of Harry's father figures were straight laced, by the book people without a sense of sarcasm.


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Gilleyweed
post Feb 14 2009, 11:11 AM
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1) Why do you think love created such a physical pain whenever Voldemort came in contact with Harry?

Because love was a concept so foreign to LV. He never received any form of it, while in the orphanage. Although, you would think he saw forms of love, such as friendships, between the other children. But he didn't experience it himself. And I doubt, by the time he reached 11, he wanted to even try to form a friendship with anyone. He thought it made you weak, a way to be hurt, by having someone you care about become sick or die. Maybe that's what he was doing in the cave with Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop, he was testing how loving someone made you weak.


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Mad-Eye Moody
post Feb 14 2009, 12:10 PM
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QUOTE(Gilleyweed @ Feb 14 2009, 11:11 AM) *
1) Why do you think love created such a physical pain whenever Voldemort came in contact with Harry?

Because love was a concept so foreign to LV. He never received any form of it, while in the orphanage. Although, you would think he saw forms of love, such as friendships, between the other children. But he didn't experience it himself. And I doubt, by the time he reached 11, he wanted to even try to form a friendship with anyone. He thought it made you weak, a way to be hurt, by having someone you care about become sick or die. Maybe that's what he was doing in the cave with Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop, he was testing how loving someone made you weak.


Aye, true enough. Now, I've never been one for the soft approach to those who done wrong, but I have to say, the wizard's upbringing does seem to make a difference when the wizard is grown up. A little kindness at home goes a long way.

Course, there are exceptions to every rule. Take Harry, for example. There's a lad who never had much in the way of love at home growing up - but I think enough people showed him love in other ways that he was able to compensate for what he lacked with those conniving Muggles. I'd like to have had a chance to set them straight! bruce.gif

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Sirius_Black
post Feb 14 2009, 12:33 PM
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Well, you could certainly argue my homelife wasn't exactly loving and giving. What do you make of the way I turned out?

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Severus_Snape
post Feb 14 2009, 02:36 PM
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I could say a lot about the way you turned out, Black, but I haven't got all day to waste pointing out your many faults.


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Alice Weasley
post Feb 14 2009, 06:43 PM
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I think the was Sirius turned out has alot to do with James. If it weren't for James and his family opening up their home and hearts to him, he could have turned out very differently, but that kind of love is what helped shape him into the character we saw in the books.
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lunas_my_gurl
post Feb 14 2009, 07:49 PM
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ok i know that arry got his protection because of his mother's love but was it just her sacrificing herself that did it or were there other precautions that were taken before that? I mean i kind of find it hard to belive that no other mother besides Lily had sacrificed herself for her child

...and i may be mistaken but didnt it say that the protection from lily's love that was still in voldemort was one of the factors that brought harry back to life? and if so how was it that the protection was kept alive in voldemort after the 17 year timelimit was up?

this may not be the best place to ask this but im kinda new to the boards and dont know my way around yet XD
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Mrs Norris
post Feb 14 2009, 11:19 PM
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Argus_Filch
post Feb 14 2009, 11:25 PM
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There you are my pet!

Yes, of course I can get you a nice bowl of milk and some fresh meat. This is the day of love after all; you deserve a treat.
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