Why didn't anyone offer to teach Harry?

[Steve <bboy_mn@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52976

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, SnapesSlytherin at a... wrote:
> Why didn't anyone offer to teach Harry the Patronus spell?  
> ...edited...  Harry had to seek out help.
> 
> ~*~*~Oryomai~*~*~


bboy_mn:

Just opinion but I think several things come into play here.

There are many MANY places in the book where Harry/Ron/Hermione could
have asked for help and got it. I have to believe, if he would have
asked, one of the teachers could have fixed Ron's wand. Certainly
robes can be magically altered, so if Ron had asked a teacher or a
house elf or even Hermione, he probably could have had reasonable
looking robes. 

Harry is thoroughly independant, he almost never asks anyone other
than Hermione and Ron for help. I think part of that is being an
abused child. I think JKR very accurately created a personality that
reflects his history. Harry has absolutely no reason to trust adult
when you consider that his model for adults is Vernon and Petunia. He
has no reason to trust kids when Dudley and his gang constantly
assaulted him, and the rest of the school played along because they
didn't want Dudley to turn on them. 

The very first adult that treats Harry nice becomes a very close
friend; Hagrid. The next adult who relates to him in a safe
non-threatening friendly way, also becomes a friend; Lupin. Yet even
with these friends, he rarely turns to them for help. He does ask
Lupin to help him with the Dementors, but he does so reluctatly, and
it takes his fierce desire to win the Quidditch Cup to make him
overcome his hesitation.

Plus, they are kids. Little kids live in their own private world. It
has its own language, its own priorities, and its own rules. Part of
the Code of the Playground say that you can only live and operate with
in the boudaries of the universal playground; wihtin the boundaries of
a kids world. You don't run to the teacher, you don't turn to adults
for every little thing like a baby, and you don't rat on even your
worst enemy. In this case, I am reminded of the 'Peanut' cartoons.
When adults talk, they have no voice. They have no voice when speaking
to the children because they are foreigners in a child's world. When
Charlie Brown talks he sounds normal, but when his mother replies, all
you hear is a trombone; wuaaa wuaaa wuaaaa waa.

Now we see why they didn't ask, but your real question is, 'Why didn't
anyone offer?'. I think partly because it's life lesson. The same
reason they let Snape teach. Because as much as the student hate him,
they learn to work with him. That's the way real life work. There may
be someone where you work that you absolutely hate. Someone who's
personality is grossly in conflict with your own, but you act like a
professional; you deal with it and get on with what must be done.

The life lesson in general in this case, is that it's OK to ask for
help. Or twisted into a proverb, you do not get what you do not ask for. 

I could ramble on longer, but I think you get the point.

bboy_mn, who really hopes he got his 'its' correctly.