OoP: Harry's Curious Lack of Curiosity

[mmemalkin]

No: HPFGUIDX 60483

If you're worried about spoilers, there is one reference to the 
publicity release Scholastic made when they announced the 
publication date.  So it's nothing new, really.  Anyway, it's 
towards the end in the paragraph about my rock solid prediction.

JKR has said that in OoP "Harry has to ask some questions that I 
hope the reader will think, 'Well why hasn't he asked that before?'"

I've wondered since PS/SS why Harry doesn't ask questions about his 
parents. He's among people who knew them personally, and he seems 
eager to hear whatever tidbits are offered, but I can't find a 
single instance where he initiates a direct question about them. I'm 
beginning to suspect he's under an Imperius Curse not to ask. 

Paging through the sections where there are major revelations, I 
find that the information is volunteered, or he overhears it, or it 
is offered in response to a question he asks about himself or 
Voldemort. I'm working on a complete list of references, but here 
are a few points of interest:  

In PS/SS chapter 2:  "...the first question he could ever remember 
asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten [his scar]."  The 
response he got was the car crash explanation, and an injunction not 
to ask questions.  "Don't ask questions - that was the first rule 
for a quiet life with the Dursleys." (Does Petunia know something 
about it? I wondered briefly if she could have cast it. That's 
pretty advanced magic, and she'd have to more than a possible
squib to do it.)

In PS/SS, chapter 4:  When Hagrid delivers his Hogwarts letter, 
Harry asks, "What happened?" in response to Hagrid's outrage that 
Harry didn't know "his own story."  This prompts Hagrid to tell his 
parents' story as well, so Harry got the information indirectly.

A little later in that same section: "Harry, meanwhile, still had 
questions to ask, hundreds of them."  His first one:  what happened 
to Voldemort?

In chapter 17: When Hagrid gives Harry the photo album full of 
pictures of James and Lily, and asks him if he likes it, "Harry 
couldn't speak..."  Hagrid (and we) always assumed he was too 
emotional.  Maybe he was trying to ask about them.

In PoA, chapter 18:  Lupin is talking about the Marauders and says 
that James was Prongs.  Harry starts to ask, "What sort of animal—
 ?" before he's cut off by Hermione.  This is the closest thing
I've found to a direct question, but it's similar to two or
three other situations where he does technically ask a question, but
it's just to confirm or clarify something he's already been
told. It's not something he initiated.

Back to PS/SS, chapter 17:  Harry tells Dumbledore that there are 
things he wants to know the truth about.  DD responds with his oft-
quoted remark that "the truth...is a beautiful and terrible
thing..." He gives Harry tacit permission to ask away. 
"Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried
to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the 
first place?"  The first part, referring to his mother, is a 
restatement of what he's heard.  His question is about Voldemort.
DD declines to answer him, but promises, "You will know, one
day...when you are older...when you are ready, you will know."

My one rock solid prediction for OoP is this:  Petunia had motive to 
cast the Imperius, but she's a long shot.  I think Dumbledore
cast it to try to control Harry's curiosity.  Now that Harry has 
been taught to recognize and break an Imperius Curse, he's going
to figure out what's been done to him and break it.  When he goes
to Dumbledore and demands answers, DD recognizes that the time has 
come. "It is time,' he said, "for me to tell you what I
should have told you five years ago, Harry." (as in the quote from
Scholastic's publicity teaser.)
Maybe Harry was so good in Moody's class (so quick to learn how
to break the curse), because he's been fighting this one on some
level since he was a toddler.

Another thought:  Maybe this is the missing "third time" that
Harry has been put under the Imperius.  There was some discussion 
here about a month ago of the quote from the graveyard scene GoF 
(chapter 34):  "And Harry felt, for the third time in his life, the
sensation that his mind had been wiped of all thought..."  The 
graveyard is one, and it was generally agreed that the series of 
lessons in DADA with Moody counted as "one." Maybe the veelas 
weren't the third time after all.

So, is there anything to this?  And what should I call the theory?

~Diane
Eschewing obfuscation