Out of curiosity, do you guys think that the Harry in this story will end up being legitimitely dark or will end up fighting against Voldemort? 'Cause we often forget that the summary alludes to a Harry that's Bat Shit Evil, atleast I Seem to think so.

The casual way in which Harry used Hermoine as a Guinea Pig for his wards seems to allude to a much darker future. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

Thoughts on that?

 

If you choose to believe the summary:

 

The summary, quoted above by KrzaQ, only suggest he will be a Dark Wizard which doesn't say much. Depending on a definition, Snape easily can be described as one and Lily considers him to be her close friend, not an evil person that should be kept away from her sons.

 

I mean, he's already successfully cast the Cruciatus. That's pretty dark. Hell, that's enough for the British Ministry to probably attempt to imprison him, given how often they rely on first impressions and merely surface-deep evaluations in canon.

He's using dark spells, he's learning dark magic, and he has a very dark girlfriend to continue their delving into darker magics. Dark.

And yet, he's unprejudiced, highly concerned for his brother's safety, has a mildly close relationship with Albus Dumbledore, and has yet to harm a single person for the sake of pleasure (as opposed to vengeance.)

He's certainly not "light", but he's not exactly evil and doesn't seem like the type to turn evil. (Unless he starts going down the "unethical experimentation" route, ala Orochimaru from Naruto.)

 

Maybe to heal Calypso? After all the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

 

The question was whether he'll be dark. The summary answers that question directly.

So did Jesus!Harry in canon.

I have image of the father from Taken (2008​), an overall good guy willing to do whatever is necessary for those he cares about, without wailing about feelings of people who seek harm to him or his.

 

There's nothing lacking in romance at all. This is definitely a much better pacing than a bunch of 14yr olds suddenly making out and humping each other like rabbits--- or suddenly noticing boobs. As for those people clamoring for romance, this is not a romance fic. and I'd never want to see this turned into one or have romance as an integral focus of the story. It's great as it is now where romance is "clearly" visible but staying in the background enough as to not disrupt the flow of the story.

One of Harry's parents will die. Nuff said.

 

Didn't he-who-has-a-severe-martyr-complex's attempt at the Cruciatus fail spectacularly, leading to Bellatrix making fun of him? (I remember very little beyond basic plot from books 5 through 7, so forgive me if I forgot a successful attempt.)

I don't know if this Harry is actually a good guy: sure, he obviously cares deeply about his family, but he has been murdering animals for a while, he takes great pains to show up the Ravenclaws he still heavily dislikes, and he has minimal issue with potentially killing his girlfriend in a magical duel due to his spell choice. That's a bit too dark for me to call him good by pretty much any set of relevant, non-consequentialist ethics.

Oh, and on another note: count me as another person who is fine with the way the romance is being portrayed. I think you could stand to add a bit more flirtatious interaction, but it's not like I have an actual issue with the way things are now.

 

I don't think anybody's arguing that Harry is good, at this point.


I would personally argue that he's not particularly likeable, either.

 

This needs to be repeated. It is very possible, and seems to flow along well with the story's overarching theme. Harry isn't dark because his family is or because he grew up worshipping Lord Voldemort, it's simply the choices he faced which made him go down this path. He's smart, hard working, driven, pragmatic, aligned lawfully neutral/evil by way of the DnD rulebook and might get very close to Calypso, maybe even falling in love with her soon. Him going evil because of the choices he took to heal Calypso is a touch poetic; and I'm sure that The Santi will handle this better than George Lucas did if it comes to this.

 

He has no problems with casting it on Amycus Carrow in book 7. I don't remember him being torn about it either. That was hours at most before he went all Jesus on Voldemort.

Transfigured animals. Transfiguring a frog into a cup is essentially killing it, yet it is a part of the course of second year transfiguration if I recall correctly. How evil is that?

Since when is being competitive an indication of evilness?

You're forgetting they're both magical, and at worst their injuries have been healed in just one evening. What may be debilitating in the real world is barely a problem for wizards.

tl;dr: you're thinking like a muggle

 

He also used it in book 7 in Ravenclaw Tower against Amycus Carrow, just because he spit in McGonagall's face. I don't think she even mentioned it. Harry's use of the Unforgivables in canon was actually troubling to me, even more so that no one seems to bat an eye when he did it.

Also, for the record: romance portion seems alright to me, its pace seems realistic to me given what we know of Harry and Calypso's characters.

 

Absolutely loved the latest chapter - with regards to the romance between Harry and Calypso, I don't have any problems with it but would agree with Gene on the idea that some more flirtatious interaction would add to it.

I do think Harry is a good person still, though the path he is going down is most definitely not one that will keep him a good person by his family's definition. Just because he's using an unforgivable (Canon Harry also used the Imperius curse) and starting to probe the surface of darker magic does not mean he's abandoned the standard Potter morals - we actually see him protesting against learning some pieces of dark magic for a while, though that is admittedly starting to change.

I think that people may be mistaking his competitive nature as evil or misguided, when honestly, I just think it's the sign of someone who would turn to evil given time to win.

 

As I said, I barely remember the specifics of books 5 through 7. Thanks for reminding me.

I was talking more about the "burying a rabbit alive for practice making an earth elemental" thing.

When did I even start to imply that I thought it was? It's a major character flaw, as is his rather large degree of pride. It's not the sign of a good person, especially if you look at things from certain ethical systems (most virtue ethics systems, to be extremely specific.)

Even wizards can't heal death by collapsed lung (or whatever quickly fatal –barring immediate treatment– thing happened, I'm a bit hazy on the specifics,) they can only heal the lung. The duel turned very vicious, very quickly, and Harry's minimal hesitance in his use of potentially lethal tactics is morally questionable.

Nah, I'm thinking like a guy with a philosophy minor and a penchant for nitpicking.

Again, I don't think he's evil. He's just not actually good.

 

If it was a transfigured rabbit, my point stands.

When you used it as an argument against Harry being a good person. To me laziness vs. ambition and good vs. evil are completely orthogonal.

Yet, despite what you've said, both Harry and Calypso only spent one evening in the Hospital Wing. Besides, they were both willing and in presence of a teacher -- they definitely did not use any magic that could see them disqualified in the Tournament, as the whole event was preparation for it. Imho it was no more evil than Muhammad Ali injuring his opponent or getting injured in the ring.

 

I distinctly remember something about Harry having to "catch another" one, but it's been a while since I read the chapter. It's not really that important.

I adamantly disagree with this type of thinking, but if you want to go by "is Harry good or evil", I would say good. I just think it's more complicated than that.

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at: imagine Harry's last curse had instead hit her heart and caused massive internal damage. "Nothing bad happened in the end, so it wasn't wrong to do" is not a valid argument for any but the most dogged of consequentialists. If I push my brother into an active volcano and he miraculously survives, my action is still wrong, despite the fact that he survived the potentially lethal action I undertook. The presence of a teacher doesn't stop that, unless Calypso's dad has previously unmentioned medical training.

Willingness has nothing to do with it: my girlfriend might be willing to get in a gunfight with me, but if I accept the risk of me shooting my girlfriend to death, that says something about my moral inhibitions more than anything.

And disaqualification in the tournament is irrelevant unless you're now a legally-based duty ethicist.

It's not the action of firing the curse that I think is morally grey, but the knowledge that what you're doing could cause irreparable harm to your significant other and subsequently going through with it with only mild hesitation.

 

The Kira/Krum breakup seems really off to me. She's stood by Krum and put a lot of effort into helping him even while everyone looked at him as a retard while she herself was a really desirable girl, and you've put a lot of effort into making Harry interact with her despite them not necessarily liking each other.

At least that's how I remember the fic, so it seems really bizarre that they're just going to break up after all that.

Yeah it would happen IRL but in this fic I thought that the Calypso/Kira conflict would remain a theme and source of light byplay with Harry as the mediator.

 

On the relationship front, I'd say that some more flirtation or physical contact (nothing overt, just her leaning onto him as they eat breakfast or something) could help solidify the relationship. As it is right now, I feel that there's still parts where you could think of them as simply best friends if you weren't aware of their relationship.

Also, at the start of the first duel they specified that they'd limit themselves to nothing that can be lethal. Not sure if that carried over to the second duel.