Rowena Rain

Blackout poem: original page is from Chapter II of The Picture of Dorian Grey, Oscar Wilde

Collaged art sources:

black linework eye - Yoshi, ‘Universe in Your Eyes’ (@ yoshi_tattooer on instagram) 

linked hands - oil study by Emma Neill (originally @ art_en on instagram) based on ‘Hands’ by He Lihuai (2017) 

heart with wings - collage by graphic designer TISTA.MX (@ tista.mx on instagram) 

hand with snake - hand painting by Hans Memling, ‘Man of Sorrows’ (c. 1480); snake added by digital artist Robin Isely

red eye is my own art, made with water soluble wax pastels

cloud images used in background are my own photos

conversely, we know that tom spent a long, long time searching for his family. it was something he really wanted -- at least, until actually he found them. we're told that his father did not accept magic, and by extension, we can assume the riddles would not accept tom either. in tom's perspective, merope is similarly a 'victim' of riddle snr's actions. she was made weak by her love for him. suffice to say that unlike harry, tom never receives any reassurance of love and self-worth from either of his parents.

still, i would argue that tom understands love quite perfectly... he just resents it. in the absence of love, what tom has always wanted to prove is that he is above needing it, hence his obsession with mocking it and anyone who stands by it. witnessing the grief of his enemies allows him to feel superior, and he relishes in that.

but back to harry --

when harry is pushed around by vernon and petunia, he works very hard to not engage. (grey rock method.) this behaviour continues somewhat with snape. basically, harry has learned to pick his battles, and he recognizes that nine times out of ten, antagonizing authority figures doesn't get him anywhere good.

(of course, this leads to an entirely different issue where harry's trust in the adults in his life to pull through for him is constantly eroded, but i digress.)

the most volatile reactions we see from harry is in ootp, where voldemort frequently exposes harry to his own unrestrained emotions. as a result of the bleedover, harry struggles a lot more with holding his temper around umbridge (not that we blame him). he's moodier and lashes out at people more often. (his crashout at the end of ootp being left out of the films is such a let down. let that boy crashout!!)

as harry is the pov character of the story, from his perspective, everything he does makes sense and seems reasonable. to others, i think harry comes off differently. he's not that friendly and he mostly keeps to himself. for most of the books, only ron and hermione are allowed to sit at his lunch table... cause let's be honest, when other people approach him, it's usually not for good reasons.

(when writing a version of harry raised by james and lily, i do imagine harry to be more extroverted, more confident in himself. i also think we do see facets of this harry in canon when he's happy. most notably when he plays quidditch, which is a sport he enjoys and feels he's earned his accolades in!)

i would definitely be interested in seeing more realism in how harry is affected by his childhood and the awful things that happen to him -- i imagine it would be similar to what we see him go through in ootp.