seeking knowledge and keeping secrets-long

[slgazit]

No: HPFGUIDX 80875

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "alshainofthenorth" 
<alshainofthenorth at y...> wrote:
> Kneasy suggested a few posts ago that kids Harry's age in PS/SS
> don't have a sophisticated understanding of death--that it's forever
> and that it can happen even to children.  So even if DD had told 
Harry
> at that point that LV wanted to kill Harry, would he have been as 
> fearful as you think?  The idea would still be pretty abstract to 
> him.

I don't think Harry would view it as an abstract concept. He knows 
that death is permanent and can happen to children - both his parents 
are dead and he was the target of an assassination attempt at the 
tender age of one, after all!

I think Dumbledore was right not to tell him at 11. The right time to 
tell him the prophecy should have been after Voldemort was revived,
at the end of GoF. At that point, Harry was old enough to understand 
and the need to inform him was magnified. Until then I do not see the 
point.

Of course if he had told him then, we would not have OoP to read...
:-)

Salit