Harry Potter

It's not pride, it's more of a rage.

Professor Snape, in Harry's mind, killed quite possibly the closest thing to a grandfather he had ever had - Professor Dumbledore. Not only that, but he was also partially responsible for the death of Sirius Black, the closest thing to a father he had ever known. To use the book would be to use the weapons of a killer, of a murderer.

Harry is a very revenge-oriented hero. You have to do something to tick him off so badly he wants your head at his feet. We all know he's after Voldemort's cold blood and Peter Pettigrew's, for obvious reasons. It took a strong willpower not to kill Peter at the Whomping Willow, and the only reason he probably did it in the first place would be to keep his father's friends from becoming murders, and he felt that he deserved the eternal torture of Azkaban more than death.

So, quite obviously, he would very reluctantly dig through the books of enemies for information, considering everything associated with the Death Eaters to be evil, dispicable, and murderous.

As for Unforgivables, I can see Harry using them on his most hated enemies. Most of the time he feels something called righteous anger, anger that flashes just after the untimely death of a loved one. But, I could see Harry wanting Voldemort and Professor Snape to feel his wrath.

Thanks everyone for your help. The whole "seeing it in the Room of Requirement" idea is floating around in my brain right now, so thanks to those who suggested it. And, yeah, I know Crucio didn't work for him either time... I meant would he use Sectumsempra again, or a different slicing hex, to defend himself. The whole "dark arts" thing is sketchy to me, because I think any spell could be a dark spell if it's intent would be to cause harm. I dunno if you can use Wingardium Leviosa on people, but if you could, levitating someone through a window and dropping them to the ground fifty feet below would be kinda bad. I do have him researching slicing hexes in one of my chapters, and Hermione doesn't really like it, but Harry tells her that he's going to need to defend himself against the Death Eaters and who knows what else, and that he needs to consider spells he wouldn't normally use.

I like the idea of Dobby returning the book. I think he would just show up with it, possibly, and Harry would chuck it in a corner and come across it later. However, I think after Dumbledore's death, Harry won't be as reckless as before. I think he's learned something (hopefully) in HBP and OotP. His rashness didn't pay in either case, but he still has that streak of impatience in him.

He probably won't use Sectumsempra again. He relates this spells with something wrong he did, and I don't think Harry is the type of person (being the hero) that would just do it again for the heck of it. I think you're going to need to invent something more ... creative for him to use in the book. If it's a dark spell, disguise it as something that looks more tame. Sectumsempra just said 'for enemies,' so it's logical that other dangerous spells might just say simple phrases that don't elude to that spells's potential.

Hold on. You're talking about defensive spells?

I could imagine Harry using almost any spell defensively, with intent to harm, against a Death Eater. He pretty much hates them, and doesn't feel any remorse towards the death of one of their kind. Remember how he tried to kill Bellatrix in the OotP? And Voldemort in the GoF?

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He probably won't use Sectumsempra again. He relates this spells with something wrong he did, and I don't think Harry is the type of person (being the hero) that would just do it again for the heck of it.

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But he DID use it again. On Snape. Or, tried to anyway before Snape went all ballistic ;)

No, I don't see Harry using the Avada Kedavra. Not even on Voldemort. I think he's going to be taken care of in a completely different way. I don't see him using Imperius either. But Crucio? Yeah, it didn't really work for him on Bellatrix. It caused her to be in pain, yes. But not the kind that SHE was used to dealing out. So, when he does run into Snape again, would he try to attempt it again? Or, say he ran into Lucius Malfoy (who's in Azkaban, yes I know, but just an example). If it was me, hell yes I'd use Sectumsempra. On him and Bellatrix and any other Death Eater. But would Harry? Hermione could probably come up with something small yet creative, like a Bombarda type thing that would send them careening into a wall and making them incapacitated. Heck, we know Expelliarmus when powerful enough can do that. But, like Dragon Seeking Muggle said, Harry acts out of anger. And when you're angry, you don't think clearly.

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Hold on. You're talking about defensive spells?

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Sort of. More like, defensive Dark spells. Like, I have an idea for a whip type of spell. And remember the fire one that Doholov used on Hermione? Would he consider using spells like that in defense, or just stick to what they learned in DADA (and Snape's book)

I'm not sure how much Harry's personality figures into whether he will make use of the Half-Blood Prince's knowledge. You see, he is stuck in a fairy tale here.

Standard form for Quest fairy tale:
Hero receives three tasks and fails them, thus earning a fourth apparently impossible task. An obstacle disappears, the Hero gains a Guide who helps him redeem three failed tasks, and the third task propels him into success in the fourth overall task.

Standard Guide: Either an animal-form speaking and reasoning figure or a physically repulsive one. The former usually asks to have its head cut off near the end of the quest, the Hero objects ("A fine reward for all your help") but obeys, revealing the transfigured *ahem* prince. The latter must be embraced as-is which will, again, reveal the transfigured True Self.

The Guide figure will do anything for the Hero, without explanation, including the morally repulsive things the Hero cannot do himself. ("And then the fox swallowed the king and all his men...") The Hero may suffer some losses of trust over this, but must return to trusting the Guide to complete his tasks.

Harry blew his three questions at the start of Potions class, but he has made his Draught of Living Death, and he has used a bezoar, and the Guide has killed to save his life. We still have a Wolfsbane Potion to go, I think, before Harry can kill the Dark Lord, and Harry is going to need that Guide back in one form or another, whether book or annotator.

I hope that helps with another way to look at a seventh-year fic. It's more a plotting point than a character issue, but I really think the question was too. Harry is stuck as the Hero, regardless of his personal inclinations and opinions.

I think that Harry would be reluctant to use Snape's book. He's always hated Snape, and this would be the perfect excuse to hate him more. However...

Hermione would very well convince him. The only reason she was against the Half-Blood Prince's book was that it was cheating in class. After all, Hermione is only human, and she saw Harry as invading on her smart-person turf.
Ron could very well convince Harry of getting the book, but he's very scared of everything Death Eater and bad. He wasn't afraid of a chess set. Chess is harmless in natural form. He's afraid of things naturally evil or powerful and might think that the book is dangerous. Of course, Ron could always say "go for it!" like with the flying car. There are 2 Ron personalities that both are canon and work.

Personally, I think that Harry would need a lot of goading and pushing to actually accept Snape's help from a book. Maybe he could get it on advice from Dumbledore's portrait? Just a thought.

Grrrr.... I think VV just figured something out about my fic ;)

That analogy made a lot of sense, actually....

I guess this is hard because I really don't like Harry as a character. I love the books, but I don't really love him. Sirius, Lupin, and Snape are my favorites. It's hard to write Harry, which is odd because he's the person we've been reading about for the past six books. I had a lot of trouble with him in the beginning of my fic. I think I kind of got the hang of him now, but I wasn't sure about getting the book in there. Everyone's given me a lot of ideas.

Does anyone else find writing Harry difficult? Because sometimes I just want to chuck my computer out the window because I'm just so tired of writing all the necessary stuff before I get to the good bits.

As of now in canon, he wouldn't. He's far too bitter at Snape's killing of Dumbledore, and he's ignorant of the vow Snape made.

However, that's why we have fanon. He very well could go retrieve the book. But you need to develop it properly within your story. He needs to learn several lessons in the canon-fanon transition in order to make this action believable.

It's all about your plot development/characterization. If you get that right, you could pull it off. Good luck!

Kumy

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Does anyone else find writing Harry difficult?

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Definately. I am constantly asking myself whether Harry would do this or that, or if it is believeable for Harry to wear this, use that spell, feel this way. It becomes extremely frustrating, but I think the reason I find it so hard to write Harry is because we have this standard to maintain, given to us by JKR. I think it's a little odd sometimes because alot of the fics I read these days are in someone elses POV and when that happens Harry always seems to be standing around not doing much of anything.

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Sort of. More like, defensive Dark spells. Like, I have an idea for a whip type of spell. And remember the fire one that Doholov used on Hermione? Would he consider using spells like that in defense, or just stick to what they learned in DADA (and Snape's book)

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I couldn't see Harry using the Unforgivables, and have them work, but I think he would use dark defensive spells. We know he tried to use Sectumsempra and Crucio on Snape. I don't think there is problem as to whether Harry would use a dark spell. I think the problem will be will the spell work? For Harry to use a spell against Severus he is going to have to learn the element of surprise because otherwise it is just going to be block after block all over again. What did Snape say? 'Blocked again, and again, and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed, Potter!' (HBP)