seeking knowledge and keeping secrets-long

[angelberri56]

No: HPFGUIDX 80862

 
 Karen wrote:
> Of course, a world full of secrets provides lots of good plot 
> devices, doesn't it? Still, from a parent's point of view, there are 
> many things I don't want my child to know all about. For 
example, 
> I'm currently unemployed and living off of my IRA. I kid that I am 
> prematurely retired. Although I try to stress to her that we are on 
> a limited budget, I don't want her worrying about what would 
happen 
> if we go indefinitely without income. She's thirteen, and she's 
got 
> enough to worry about without watching my checking account 
and 
> savings dwindle dollar by dollar. Still, she knows that without 
> income we have more limitations than normal. <snip>


I think it's very true what you said about parents limiting the 
information they give to their kids. Parents obviously want to 
protect their kids and shield them from things they think might 
scare or hurt them. And I believe that Dumbledore was saving 
Harry what he thought would be misery by not telling him the 
prophecy earlier on. However, Harry has a strong character, and, 
as Dumbledore stated, he proved himself worthy long before DD 
actually told him the prophecy. 


> Another thought: if Harry had known about the prophecy and all 
of 
> Dumbledore's fears that Voldemort was coming back, how 
would he have 
> reacted to the knowledge? Would he have given up and tried to 
hide 
> away? Would he have tried even harder to learn defensive 
spells and 
> hexes and become a real magical bully? If he had known that 
> Voldemort could be seeing things through his eyes, would he 
have 
> tried harder at Occlumency or would he have panicked and run 
away? 
> Do we know for sure that occlumency works when Voldemort 
was *not* 
> doing a Legilimens spell?
> 


I think we can definitely say that Harry would not run away, but 
would recover from this piece of information and learn to fight as 
hard as he could. Harry is not a wimp, and even though it does 
bother him a little at the end of OOtP, I think he will get over the 
fact that either he must murder or be murdered. It's just like 
when Harry found out that Sirius Black was after him in PoA; he 
hardly even cared. Of course, the prophecy is a much stronger 
topic, but Harry isn't the type to dwell and quiver in the shadow of 
something like that. And I'm sure that if he knew LV was seeing 
through his eyes, he would study harder at Occlumency. Harry 
did panic when he heard after the visit to St. Mungos that LV was 
posessing him, but that was before he knew Occlumency could 
help. 

Thanks so much! -angelberri56