Chapter Discussions: Chapter 3, the Advance Guard

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 83246

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "grahadh" <grahadh at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ali" <Ali at z...> wrote:
> > First posted as message 76055:-
> 
> > (Q1) Harry is a teenage boy who at this stage in the story is 
> > lacking any guidance, but does he have a hygiene problem? 

I think that (and this is just IMHO) Harry does not have a hygiene 
problem in general. This (the lack of mentions of bathing, 
toothbrushing, and the like on Harry's part) has been an issue since 
book one, and I understand that it is easy to picture Harry as 
getting positively scummy with blood and grime after even a few of 
his first adventures in SS. However, couldn't it possibly be that 
Harry does in fact bathe, shower, change his clothes and brush his 
teeth but JKR, knowing how long her books are already, merely chooses 
not to mention those times? After all, how exciting would a chapter 
be if it went, "And then Harry brushed his teeth, and then he washewd 
his hair, and then he grabbed the soap, etc, etc, etc..."? (To deal 
with the issue of mealtimes at Hogwarts, which could also be seen as 
unnecesary, these are collective scenes where things get discussed 
and done. Surely Hermione, or even Ron, wouldn't follow Harry to the 
boy's room just to talk!) If, in chapter 3 of OotP, there is a lack 
of mention of Harry's habits, I agree that it is probably symptomatic 
of his bad mental state. But I do not believe he continues these 
temporarily poor habits in all the other books, nor in the remainder 
of OotP. 
Meri (who thinks Harry would be a far less effective hero if LV could 
smell the boy-who-lived coming a mile away)