not-the-very-button:

Sometimes I think that maybe Harry naming his children after two of the most flawed and morally dubious characters in the whole series was meant as an indicator of Harry’s own flaws — outrageous loyalty and black and white morality. 

Harry has the most fucked up childhood yo. And due to that childhood, the expectations placed upon him by pretty much everyone, and Dumbledore’s interference, Harry develops his “hero complex.” Harry learns to identify morality in terms of heroics — a true Gryffindor indeed. Harry wants so much to believe that what he did was right, that the sacrifices others made for him were valid, that he cocoons himself in a fantasy world where the smallest of good deeds can redeem you. 

Maybe JK Rowling didn’t fuck up as bad as we like to think. 

Maybe Harry naming his kid after two corrupted puppet masters was absolutely and utterly in character. 

Maybe Harry is so desperate to not hate himself for anything less than true-red-and-gold brave he ever did that he’s convinced himself heroism is the ultimate good. And by extension he is the ultimate good. And Dumbledore and Snape were the ultimate good. Because the died in grand flourishes and left behind mysteries. Just like his parents did. 

Harry isn’t ungrateful to Hagrid or Remus or Tonks or Molly or Arthur or Fred. They simply don’t fit the showy model Harry was conditioned to accept in terms of greatness. 

Because there is a little truth to Harry’s insolence. To his belief that he is an exception to the rule. And it’s not his fault. It never was. He was groomed and led down a path of exceptionalism. So he rewards the exceptional. the exceptions. Snape. And Dumbledore. And James. And Lily. And Luna. And Sirius. The outlandish and the bold and sentimentally heroic. 

What Harry forgets is that the ordinary can be just as exceptional. Just as heroic. Just as good.