Harry's weak spot (was:Re: Choices)

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 86760

> Marianne:
> <snip>  Harry spent a fair amount of time in the same location as
> Sirius. Yet, there is no canon that they ever talked in depth about
> Lily and James, that Harry ever took the opportunity to even seek 
out
> some time with Sirius to discuss them or ask questions.  It strikes 
a
> dissonant note with me. It just doesn't seem logical that that would
> happen.  
> <snip> 
>  
> Laura:
> I can think of some very plausible reasons why Harry didn't seek 
> Sirius out on this topic during the summer in OoP.  First, Harry 
had 
> more urgent information to collect and process.  Second, the 
> atmosphere of tension at GP didn't really lend itself to that sort 
of 
> intimacy-James was already a point of contention between Molly and 
> Sirius.  Third, both Harry and Sirius were deeply preoccupied by 
> problems of their own and just wanted to take comfort in each 
other's 
> company. 
 Fourth, it's really hard for me to imagine a 15 year old 
> boy sitting an adult down and asking the kinds of questions Harry 
> would have had to ask Sirius.  The HP characters tend to be pretty 
> reserved on the best of days (with notable lapses, of course). 
<snip>
>  Sirius and Remus drop an occasional morsel of information 
> about their school days during Harry's stay at GP and Harry gets to 
> chew over those.  It doesn't seem to occur to him to ask for more 
> right then.  

Marianne responds:

Yes, Harry has a lot on his mind. And Grimmauld Place is a horror 
show.  But, it's not all gloom and doom for Harry.  And he still 
believes in the possibility of living with Sirius.  US edition, pg. 
118 -119. " Despite the fact that he was still sleeping badly...Harry 
was managing to have fun for the first time all summer.  As long as 
he was busy, he was happy..."  Then follows a bit about the 
possiblity of being expelled from Hogwarts and sent back to the 
Dursleys.  "...he would not go. He was determined on that. He would 
come back here to Grimmauld Place and live with Sirius."

Your points are well-taken, Laura, but for me the thought that at no 
time during Harry's summer days at Grimmauld Place did he ask even a 
casual question or pick up on something Sirius (or Remus) might have 
said about his parents still strikes me as odd.  

However, I would not be at all surprised to find that JKR is keeping 
this in reserve to reveal something in a later book.  As in, 'Harry 
thought about a brief conversation he had with Sirius while staying 
at Grimmauld Place...' and something in that conversation, which was 
not important enough to OoP's plot to be revealed at the time,  will 
be brought into the open when suddenly it has a bearing on the plot.


> Carol:
> Just a word or two to supplement Laura's response, which I agree 
with.
> Harry has been taught not to ask questions by the Dursleys, 
especially
> Uncle Vernon. This lesson has, unfortunately, been reinforced by
> Dumbledore and probably by Snape as well. I seem to recall that on
> several occasions, he represses the impulse to ask a question. Add 
to
> that the embarrassment of an adolescent addressing an adult he likes
> and admires but barely knows, an adult who also happens to have 
both a
> violent and an arrogant streak, and Harry's reticence is entirely
> understandable. 
> 
> Carol

Marianne responds:

I agree that Harry's upbringing has taught him not to ask questions.  
However, I don't agree that Harry has some sort of trepidation 
regarding Sirius.  In GoF, Harry sat trying to decide what adult he 
could ask about his scar without looking like a fool and causing 
himself endless embarrassment. Who does he decide to contact? Molly? 
Arthur? Dumbledore?  McGonagal? No, it is Sirius.  Plus, over and 
over in OoP, JKR makes a point of showing how Harry empathises with 
Sirius. Sure, Harry is shaken by the Pensieve scene.  But, that 
doesn't seem to change his underlying affection for his godfather.

So, for me the issue still is that Harry, who has an undeniable 
desire for family, a supposedly a great curiosity about his parents, 
and an emotional connection to Sirius, remains silent when at least 
the occasional opportunity may have presented itself at Grimmauld 
Place for him to ask questions.

Marianne