[HPforGrownups] Questions/no questions (was Re: Harry is dull)

[Richelle Votaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 45866

Pip!Squeak writes:

> Agreed. As I said, Harry is a great survivor - and one of his
> survival tactics is sarcastic comments (another is running very fast
> indeed).

Ah, very true indeed.  As a survivor, Harry has learned to use any and all
resources to get the job done.  Whether it's Hermione, Sirius, or just dumb
luck.

> But as for asking questions: Yes, he does ask questions - about
> unimportant things. Important ones - well, Harry has to be angry, or
> in real danger, or the adult has to encourage him. Otherwise, no.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the end of SS/PS when Dumbledore sat
down with Harry in the hospital and basically said "Ask anything you want,
but I might not be able to answer everything." the only time Harry was
encouraged to ask about his past?  I'm not saying people need to walk up to
Harry every day and say, by the way kid, have any questions about your dead
parents?  But surely something should come up soon.  At the end of PoA Harry
confided in Dumbledore about thinking he saw his dad.  Dumbledore says
something nice, relates Harry's patronus to his dad, and walks off, leaving
Harry with his thoughts.  That, to me, would've been a great opportunity for
Dumbledore to offer further insight into Harry's past.  A missed
opportunity.

>  He doesn't, for example, ask Dumbledore about Hagrid or Tom Riddle
> in CoS, even though he sees in the Diary Vision that Dumbledore was
> also there. He doesn't tell any adult about the theft of Tom
> Riddle's diary.

I think mainly because he knows it wasn't his in the first place.  He just
found it.  And he probably should've turned it over to an adult, and he knew
that too.

<snip several examples of Harry not asking about his parents.

Is it possible that as desperately as Harry *wants* to know about his
parents, that he is afraid of what he'll find out?  As it stands now, with
the little he knows, they are idols to him.  He adores them in his mind's
view.  All he has is what he saw in the mirror, the pictures of them that he
has, and what he heard in his memory when the dementors were around.  He
thinks of them as heroes.  He knows his dad died to hold off Voldemort.  He
knows his mom died protecting him from Voldemort.  Further back than that,
he knows that (regardless of circumstances) his dad risked his life to save
Snape, who hated him anyway.  If Harry were to find out something, well,
less than perfect about his parents it would destroy his image of them.  And
there's always the slightest chance that JKR doesn't want Harry asking
questions about them because there are things about them he (and us!) don't
need to know yet.  Or rather, she doesn't want us to know yet because she's
waiting for the big moment to reveal them.

> Other, non-parental examples: He has never asked Neville why he was
> living with his Grandmother. From the beginning of CoS to the summer
> holidays in GoF, he doesn't ask why he can't go live with the
> Weasley's during the summers. Not until the very end of GoF, after
> he's actually told that Mrs Weasley had asked if he could live with
> them.

As for Neville, I don't know.  Except that maybe Harry doesn't want to bring
up the topic of dead/absent parents.  As for the Weasleys, I think perhaps
Harry doesn't want to push in too hard.  He doesn't want to overstep the
boundaries and risk losing what chance he does have to be there.  On a side
note, I think Harry will get to spend Christmas with the Weasleys in OoP.
Since that hint was dropped in neatly by Mrs. Weasley saying she would
invite him (in GoF) for the holidays but thought they'd all want to stay at
Hogwarts for Christmas that year.  I hope so, anyway.

Richelle

****************************************************************************
****
"May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."
---- Lady Galadriel, The Fellowship of the Ring
****************************************************************************
****