Mrs Norris: A Character Study

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 1171

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Sister Mary Lunatic" wrote:
> 
> This is something that makes me wonder.  Harry always thinks that
> Mrs. Norris is looking right at him when he's invisible, and yet
> the cat never goes up to him and performs any action that would 
> reveal his presence.  She just stares at the space where he is.
> Since she seems to aid Filch in catching delinquent students, why 
> is she not attempting to bring Filch's attention to the invisible
> Harry?

Before I read the post in which someone very wisely suggested that 
Mrs. Norris thinks the invisible person is just another ghost or 
other invisible being that it is not her job to report to Filch, 
I thought:

Cats are designed to specialize in hearing: a huge amount of their 
brain is auditory cortex, and they have those dish-antenna ears 
that swivel to focus the sound. They have a better sense of smell 
than humans. And they have lousy eyesight. Mrs. Norris probably 
'notices' Harry by the sound of his breathing and heartbeat and the 
smell of his nervousness, and stares 'at' him in some confusion 
trying to see the Big Blob that is supposed to accompany that sound 
and that smell.