Harry's Lack of Agency

The thrust of the prophecy is that Harry is in some way Riddle’s equal, but with a power that Riddle knows nothing about. This clearly points to the idea that “equal” and “the same” are — not to make a really poor pun — quite simply not the same. If Harry and Riddle are equal despite Harry’s extra power, then that power must compensate for ways in which they are otherwise not equal.

Consider the ways in which Riddle is formidable. He is considered unusually magically powerful. He was, at least back in the 1970s, charismatic enough to build a movement. He is considered one of the best practitioners of the mind arts. He is a parseltongue. Against this, what does Harry bring? His patronus at age thirteen is really the only canonical indication of unusual raw power. His success teaching the DA might count for charisma, though I am unsure. The parseltongue ability was bestowed by Riddle himself — and per the prophecy, Riddle was to have marked Harry “as his equal,” so perhaps that qualifies.

There are superficial parallels: both are orphans, both dark-haired, born at nearly polar opposite points in the year, both with a certain disregard for rules. But the critical differences cut deeper. Riddle unambiguously leads. Harry, as we shall see, does so rarely and reluctantly. Riddle is eager to believe himself great and unique. Harry desires to be normal and part of something larger.

There is one very twisted reading in which Harry is Riddle’s equal no matter what the match-up: with the bit of soul embedded in him, Riddle equals Riddle. In that sense, Harry has been marked as being Riddle — but with a power Riddle does not know, the ability to love and experience love, to sacrifice for others and to be sacrificed for by others. I think this is how Dumbledore interprets the prophecy. I dislike that interpretation, because it emphasizes the soul fragment as irreversibly attached, which I disbelieve. If you reject Dumbledore’s interpretation, as I do, one is looking for Harry to have qualities that match Riddle, and strengths and weaknesses that offset corresponding weaknesses and strengths where they do not match.

The Programming of Harry Potter

As I discuss at length in looking at Dumbledore’s treatment of Harry, Harry was essentially pre-programmed to walk into that forest at the end of book seven. I find the value of Harry’s self-sacrificial action cheapened by the fact that it was predicated on such deliberate mental conditioning. The conditioning proceeds year by year:

An abusive childhood to make him question his self-worth. Then, in first year, Dumbledore not only arranges for Riddle to confront Harry, he all but tells Harry that he believed Harry should have taken on the responsibility of dealing with the situation. That conversation in the hospital wing very much reads as though Dumbledore intended Harry to have that opportunity, and I think Harry understood it that way — at least deep down, though it confused him enough that he could only put it in vague terms when telling Ron and Hermione about it afterwards.

In second year, Harry’s responsibility to deal with the situation is reinforced when Hagrid sends him to talk to the spiders, when Lockhart abandons his responsibility, and when the teachers fail to prevent Harry from being harassed as the culprit for months. This is more than training in the fickle nature of public opinion. This is deliberately isolating Harry so that his support structure is unreasonably small and circumscribed. There is no one outside of Dumbledore’s influence who might realise that too much is being expected. Given Molly’s hero worship and Arthur’s henpecked status, a Weasley does not count, and Hermione has the enormous authority-worship thing going on from the moment she walks into the school.

In third year, Dumbledore reinforces this by telling Harry that he, Dumbledore, cannot save lives — but it is all on Harry.

In fourth year, it is reinforced that Harry is to have a small, circumscribed support structure that explicitly excludes adults. In a sense, even his powerlessness in the face of fate is being reinforced this year.

In fifth year, Harry is being sent a very deliberate “you are not worth my time or effort” message.

In sixth year, the message becomes: “you have no skills, and there is nothing anyone can teach you. Your only value is reminding people of your mother’s sacrifice.” I am being intentionally blunt and slightly exaggeratedly harsh — but I think only slightly exaggeratedly.

The Walk Into the Forest

With this background, Harry does not really value his life. He is very close to suicidal, waiting for that final push — which he then gets from Snape’s memories — to tip him over the edge into actually dangerously depressed. He walks down to that clearing in shock, deliberately given no time to think, consider, or recover. It is not a choice rationally made. Whether Rowling intended this reading or not, the text supports it: Dumbledore arranged (and we cannot know that Snape would not have given the memories up under other, less urgent circumstances) for the revelation to come at a moment when reflection was impossible.

Book Seven as a Whole

In a way, the totality of book seven contributes to this passivity.

The way Hermione was used to impede Harry’s mission — and we are told Dumbledore did intend this.¹ The way Harry is given so little information that he needed, but left with the impression that he had been taught. Showing him some memories that provide minuscule hints as to the nature of the horcruxes does not count as teaching him to defeat Riddle. The duration of each “lesson,” the very act of calling them “lessons,” was a deliberate step to imply that Dumbledore was teaching him, not just showing him a handful of memories of debatable value.

Consider the episode with the seven Harrys and the escape from Privet Drive: the lack of prior coordination, the passive nature of Harry’s role, the lack of choice involved. It is very much “you are an impulsive child who cannot be trusted with important decisions like your own safety.” It is very much not “you are legally an adult in a day or so, and need to start acting like it.”

Consider the way Hermione takes the lead in providing supplies while on the run, arranging protective enchantments, even picking where they hide. Harry was depicted as having done absolutely nothing to prepare for this mission he knew was coming. He had apparently planned ahead enough to break up with Ginny, but not to look up even a single concealment charm in the library? To owl-order anything during that month of July?

The Pattern

The whole thing contributes to a view of Harry in which he is incredibly passive in his own life. He is allowed to be the hero only in the few action sequences where his ability to improvise can slightly shine, and even then, it is not really enough to do well — merely to survive. The prophecy says he is Riddle’s equal. The text shows us a boy who is never permitted to become so.