(#) brad 2010-06-10
> although Harry had "accidentally" stepped on a rather gaudy bug, squashing it
UGH. Okay, this little bit of wanton murder conclusively makes Harry a bad guy in my book. A bad guy who may be 'bad' only towards other 'bad guys', sure, but still a murderer. He didn't have to do that, and it was - literally - overkill of the irritating reporter. It makes his later confession and monologue to Hermione something of a farce; killing Rita didn't do much in protecting the 'kind sweet people' at all.
"27 different ways to destroy it" - heh. :-)
And I'm a bit surprised that Harry killed Snape; I thought Snape was adjusting to the new power balance nicely, and that Harry might even have been finding some small amount of respect for him.
Author's response
In some ways, this Harry is a mirror image of Dumbles -- who sees the 'good' in so many and forgive too readily, in the hope that the mass murderer in question may someday redeem themselves. This Harry knows the evil some individuals were capable of in his original world, and sometimes refuses to allow them the chance to do that evil in this one (like Umbridge). As for Snape and Dumbles, Harry wouldn't have killed them without a reason. He figured he had to destroy A) the horcrux; B) Dumbles & Snape; or C) risk destroying Gringotts and the wizarding economy. He picked B