Harry's behavior was Re: Riddle's information re:

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 84018

> Laura:
> >>I still think that the prophecy is a great big old red
> herring. I haven't yet read a compelling explanation for why LV 
> hadto be kept from knowing what it said. <<

Pippin:
> 
> 1) Because Dumbledore was using it as bait to lure LV out of 
> hiding, but  that could only work as long as there was *no* other 
> way LV could find out what it said, including the link in Harry's 
> mind.
> 
> 2) Because Dumbledore didn't want LV to know that if "the one" 
> is not destroyed by LV, then LV himself will not survive. It would 
> appear that LV suspects this. But he can't know. Why erase all 
> doubt?
> 
> 3) Because Dumbledore didn't want LV to know that according to 
> the Prophecy,  Dumbledore will not be able to kill LV. 
> Dumbledore  has reason to  think that LV will fear  him far less 
if  LV finds out for sure that Dumbledore can't kill him. We can see 
> Dumbledore trying to sow the idea in LV's mind that there are 
> worse things than death, but so far LV isn't buying.
> 

Laura responds:

Okay, that all makes sense.  Thanks to you and Caius Marcius for 
that explanation.  To what extent do you think that the adults in 
the Order know all this?  Obviously they all know that a prophecy 
exists and that it has something to do with the ultimate fates of LV 
and Harry (or maybe Neville?).  But do they know that only the 
person described in the prophecy has the power to "vanquish" LV?  
> 
<snip> 
> Laura:
> >>The idea that an adult keeps you in ignorance in order to 
> protect you is not one that kids understand. <snip>If the kid is 
old enough to ask the question, s/he's old enough to hear (at least 
some of) the answer.<<


>Pippin:
> Harry was neither child nor adult in OOP. He had the capabilities 
> of adulthood, but he still had a child's conception of what it 
> means to be grown up. 
> 
> He thought  that having proved himself against  Voldemort meant 
> he should be let in on everything. In  truth, none of  the 
grownups in the Order had  been told all of Dumbledore's plans. 
> 
>  All of the adults accepted that as members of a secret 
> organization, they were going to be operating with less than full 
> knowledge. Harry was told this also. But he couldn't grasp it. 
> Even after he was told the reason for secrecy, he assumed the  
> reason he wasn't  being told everything was that Dumbledore 
> didn't trust him on account of his youth. That wasn't the case. 
> 
> Of course it felt awful being kept in the dark. But either Harry 
is a  kid, and has to accept that right or wrong, adults are going 
to be making decisions for him, or he's an adult, and shouldn't  
expect anybody to have nurturing him as their first concern. But 
Harry wanted it both ways.

Laura responds:

Yes, teenagers are somewhere between child and adult.  If you want 
them to grow in the right direction, you give them more 
responsibility and trust over time.  That doesn't seem to be 
happening much in OoP.  It's one thing to be told that you can't 
know all about what other people are doing (i.e., what are the 
grownups doing for the Order at night?).  It's another to be told 
that you have to do certain things that might affect your mind and 
spirit and not be told why.  No one in the Order is asked to do what 
Harry is asked to do.  Of course, we know why that is, but if an 
adult were told to open his mind to his greatest enemy, that adult 
would want to know why.  

The adults in the Order know that only DD has all the information.  
But they still have more than Harry does.  And when he asks for 
more, he's shut down by Molly.  So naturally he doesn't get a sense 
of being in the same situation as the adults for the same reasons.  
He infers, correctly, that Molly thinks he's too young to have the 
information.  I wonder if Remus finally gives in to Molly because 
she's about to go nuclear rather than because he really thinks she's 
right.  

Teenagers often have decisions made for them by adults in the RW.  
But at Hogwarts the kids are pretty much on their own.  They don't 
rely on their parents for advice, they don't have formal mentors 
with whom they meet regularly.  Harry, of all people, has every 
right to be furious that after everything he's been through in the 
past four years (pretty much without adult assistance except for 
Remus), all of a sudden adults are going all overprotective on him-
except DD, who won't even look at him.  Of course Harry is going to 
try to figure out what's happening.  I don't think this is wanting 
it both ways.  Nor do I think it has anything with not feeling 
nurtured.  He feels, and with good reason, that people he wants to 
trust are lying by omission.  He needs a little less "nurturing" and 
a little more honesty.  This is not an everyday situation, in which 
adults keep their personal problems to themselves out of appropriate 
concern for their kids' feelings.  This is a crisis, in which 
people's lives are at genuine risk, and to keep the person most at 
risk ignorant isn't protective, it's dangerous.  This isn't mom and 
dad talking about splitting up or something like that-this is LV 
trying to invade Harry's mind, manipulate him and finally kill him.  
Keeping this from Harry doesn't make it any less likely that LV will 
succeed, imo.