Comforting!Hermione, Sensitive!Harry

[angelsound2001 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 39394

Charis Julia wrote:

<<Hermione's first reaction is to concentrate on the
lie, not Harry's feelings. So, I'm really sorry,
Penny, but I'm afraid that how this proves that she's
worried about Harry more than Sirius is not evident to
me. Why would Harry get into trouble here for lying?
The worst thing that could happen to him would be a
scold from Sirius.>>

She's worried that Sirius will *believe* Harry and not
do anything about Harry's scar problem. Or at least,
that's a possible reading of it. She does seem to be
morally indignant here. But she may see inaction on
Sirius's part (though, really, what does she expect
him to do?) as a possible negative result of the lie.

Charis Julia continued:

<<I realise Harry's got other troubles on his mind
what with unwanted photo shoots and being deboned and
everything, but the fact remains that at least in my
book "No", "I'm in a hurry" and "It'll be boring" 
* are* rude and insensitive.>>

Actually, I've always taken from that that Harry is a
lot more patient with these people then, say, I would
be, to elaborate on JennyofRavenclaw's post (<<I think
Colin is the one who needs to have some courtesy, and
I think Harry has been consistently more polite 
than necessary to Colin.>>). He never ignores them,
always gives a civil response, and never tells them to
get lost even where a less patient person would
totally lose it. "I'm in a hurry" could be honest
(IIRC, it was) and "It'll be boring" is an attempt to
avoid Colin *without* having to hurt his feelings.

And think about it... would any of us really like
Harry as much if he stopped and took a lot of time
with Colin and his little fan club? Letting them take
his picture all the time and such? We'd probably think
he was playing up his own fame Lockhart-style, instead
of being modestly embarrassed by it as he is!

Finally,

<<What I meant by lack of sensitivity was lack of
concern for others feelings. (we were talking about
comfort giving weren't we?) Hence the Colin, Myrtle
etc examples.>>

Which Myrtle passage were we talking about? The one
that springs to mind is the one where Harry mentions
breathing in front of Myrtle, then is quickly reminded
"how sensitive Myrtle was about being dead." Now, not
having talked to many dead people, as I'm sure Harry
hasn't either, I'll bet it's easy to forget not to use
words like "breathe" in front of Myrtle. <g> But he
DID know beforehand that she was sensitive... and he
WAS rather caught up in his own problem at the time!
OK, so Harry can be insensitive... but he's not
without *concern* for others. He didn't insult her on
purpose and seems to feel bad about it... not looking
at the book at the moment, this is all from memory so
I could be wrong! The point is, like many adolescent
(and some full grown!) boys, Harry can be slow to
percieve how others feel. I guess we agree there!

On a side note, kudos to prefectmarcus on wonderful
use of the word "shnook."

Oh, and Pippin? Please, **please** be wrong about
Lupin! That post was... *too* good...

--Raven, who's only on her second post ever, and hopes
someday she'll be creative enough to live in TBay

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