Harry's reaction to insults about his parents

[Richelle Votaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 44282

I've been pondering what makes Harry react and what doesn't.  I've found a few instances when various individuals have insulted Harry's parents and his reactions.  I'm trying to determine a pattern here, or perhaps lack thereof.  Anyway, if you can think of others, please add them.  All quotes are Scholastic paperback edition.

Starting with SS/PS, page 294:

Voldemort says "Don't be a fool.  Better save your own life and join me . . . or you'll meet the same end as your parents . . . They died begging me for mercy . . ."

To which Harry responds "LIAR!"

Nothing too drastic, but still, screaming at Voldemort is pretty daring, for an eleven year old.

Now on to CoS:

First, Tom Riddle, page 321:

"You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry . . . She bought you twelve years of borrowed time . . . but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must."

Harry's response: Nothing.  Of course, he did feel drowsy, everything around him was spinning, as the Basilisk's poison spread through his body.  Fawkes tears were still in the process of healing the wound.

Again in CoS, Lucius Malfoy, page 338:

"You'll meet the same sticky end as your parents one of these days, Harry Potter.  They were meddlesome fools, too."

Harry's response: again, nothing.  Although Dobby took care of Lucius in a moment. :)

Now on to PoA:

Aunt Marge, page 25:

"It's one of the basic rules of breeding, you see it all the time with dogs.  If there's something wrong with the bitch, there'll be something wrong with the pup."

Harry's response: Uncontrolled rage shatters Aunt Marge's wineglass.

Aunt Marge again, page 28:

"A no-account, good-for-nothing, lazy scrounger who--"

Harry--"He was not."  He was shaking all over, and had never felt so angry in his life."  Uncle Vernon tries to send him to bed, but Aunt Marge continues:

"No, Vernon.  Go on, boy, go on.  Proud of your parents, are you?  They go and get themselves killed in a car crash (drunk, I expect)--"

Harry jumps to his feet "They didn't die in a car crash!"

Aunt Marge again: "They died in a car crash, you nasty little liar, and left you to be a burden on their decent, hardworking relatives!  You are an insolent, ungrateful little--"

And of course at this point Harry loses control and inflates Aunt Marge, then hightails it out of the house.

Later on in PoA, Snape, page 361:

Harry yells at Snape, defending Lupin, then Snape responds:

"SILENCE!  I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!  Like father, like son, Potter!  I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee!  You would have been well served if he'd killed you!  You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black--now get out of the way, or I will *make you.*  GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!"

Harry made up his mind in a split second, and before Snape could move, "Expelliarmus's" him.

Finally, on to GoF, page 646: 

Voldemort says "You stand, Harry Potter, upon the remains of my late father.  A muggle and a fool. . . very like your dear mother.  But they both had their uses, did they not? "

Harry makes no response, but of course he is tied to a gravestone at the time.  Interesting, though, Lily wasn't a muggle.  Why is Voldemort calling her one?  To me there's a big difference in "muggle" and "muggle born."

Anyway, is there a pattern here or not?  Two of the times Harry does absolutely nothing after an insult to his parents is in the graveyard and in the chamber with Riddle.  Both times he is, shall we say, incapacitated?  But the third, to Lucius Malfoy, he says nothing.  You could say he didn't have the self esteem for it, I suppose, though he did at least scream at Voldemort the year before.  Now in PoA he does something all three times, Aunt Marge getting the worst end of the deal, and Snape getting a triple Expelliarmus thanks to Ron and Hermione.  However, it was the comment from Snape about Harry's father that was the straw to break the camel's back so to speak.  It was in that second he made up his mind to disarm Snape.  As did Ron and Hermione.

Anyway, what am I getting at here?  I'm not entirely sure, I was hoping you could tell me. :)  

Richelle

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