Question: would you consider spells like "Sectumsempra" dark? If so, Harry has been attracted to them, and used them, precisely because of the power they hold. The difference between Harry and Severus in this regard is just not as clear as some fans would like to think.
And I do think it is Harry's capacity to love that will save the world, but not because he is so pure and has never been tempted by the dark arts. Rather, I think Harry is carrying the last horcrux around with him - and he will be able to destroy, or even transform, that last soul fragment precisely because of his ability to love his enemies (plugging my own fic - I've got a story called "The last horcrux" that gives my idea of how this might happen. Of course, I might be way off; that's why I wrote the idea out as a fic!) It is Harry's capacity for love that will enable him, finally, to empathize with, and understand, Snape and perhaps even Riddle. Riddle, in contrast, has NO such capacity, and Snape, though he has the capacity, doesn't seem to have the desire to forgive. That, IMHO, is why he's the 'middle man', between Harry and Voldemort. But Harry, at the end of HBP, was showing no capacity for forgiveness and was closer to Severus than he has ever been. Harry has got to recongnize and transcend his own darkness before he can save the world, IMHO.
Back to Riddle - yes, there is a suggestion that his pathology is genetic, and that makes his presentation in the books even more troubling. We definitely do not choose our genes! So where does choice come in, if young Riddle was condemned to madness by both nature and nurture?!
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And I do think it is Harry's capacity to love that will save the world, but not because he is so pure and has never been tempted by the dark arts. Rather, I think Harry is carrying the last horcrux around with him - and he will be able to destroy, or even transform, that last soul fragment precisely because of his ability to love his enemies (plugging my own fic - I've got a story called "The last horcrux" that gives my idea of how this might happen. Of course, I might be way off; that's why I wrote the idea out as a fic!)
It is Harry's capacity for love that will enable him, finally, to empathize with, and understand, Snape and perhaps even Riddle. Riddle, in contrast, has NO such capacity, and Snape, though he has the capacity, doesn't seem to have the desire to forgive. That, IMHO, is why he's the 'middle man', between Harry and Voldemort. But Harry, at the end of HBP, was showing no capacity for forgiveness and was closer to Severus than he has ever been. Harry has got to recongnize and transcend his own darkness before he can save the world, IMHO.
Back to Riddle - yes, there is a suggestion that his pathology is genetic, and that makes his presentation in the books even more troubling. We definitely do not choose our genes! So where does choice come in, if young Riddle was condemned to madness by both nature and nurture?!