OOP: Harry's emotional life

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 66742

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ajlboston" <ajlboston at y...> 
wrote:
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> I have finally recalled and dare mention what irked me during this 
> book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.  
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> Here, while we know there is a lot going on to describe in this 
> novel, I am surprised at how little Harry's thoughts are mentioned 
of 
> these other characters-- it's mainly Ron and Hermione that he 
speaks 
> to.  He also 
> must miss Sirius, and be glad to see Lupin again, but I didn't see 
> much description of their emotional interaction while Harry was at 
12 
> Grimmauld or his thoughts about them while he was at school (though 
> of course he thought of Sirius more often than Lupin).  Are we 
> supposed to assume that Harry is bonding with S. and L. in those 
> holiday and preschool weeks at Grimmauld and it's just offstage 
> because we are busy learning about other stuff? 

I think that JKR glosses over stretches of time like the time spent 
at Grimmauld Place because that's not where she wants to take the 
story.  You'd think that at least once or twice during that time 
Harry might have asked some pertinent questions of Sirius - pertinent 
to what we the readers want to know.  But, apparently he doesn't.  On 
the one hand, that seems like odd behavior.  On the other hand, 
that's not how JKR is structuring the story.

As far as Sirius and Harry bonding, there were a number of small, 
thoughts that JKR threw in that, I think, indicated Harry's continued 
growing affection towards his godfather.  When he arrives in 
Grimmauld Place, Harry realizes that Sirius is not too happy with 
Dumbledore, either.  He feels "an upsurge of affection" for Sirius.  
When Harry's back at Hogwarts and sees what Percy said about him, 
parroting the same sorts of drivel that the Daily Prophet prints 
about him, he feels a "surge of sympathy" for Sirius.  And he 
realizes that Sirius is the only person in his life who would 
understand Harry's current feelings because Sirius also has lived 
with a huge part of his society believing horrible things about him.  
When Harry is confused by Cho's actions, he wishes he could contact 
Sirius and talk to him about girls. 

So, I think JKR has shown Harry's emotional connection to Sirius.  
It's just too bad that the cirmcumstances severely limited their 
ability to communicate more often with each other.

But, I know what you mean.  I've often felt that I've been cheated of 
getting a fuller picure of the relationships between characters in 
the Potter books.  But, we can't know Harry's every single thought 
through every single day, or the books would be encyclopedic in size. 
So, yeah, a certain amount of stuff has to happen offstage.

Marianne