Themes in OotP (was Re: Angry Harry in HBP?)

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 119869


Java wrote:
>>I think the whole ootp story, ever since Chapter 1, is built based 
on
Dumbledore's mistake, of not understanding teenagers and thinking he
could just leave Harry out of the whole thing. I don't buy that.
[snip]
 Being an educator, how long does he think he can get away with not 
letting people grow up? <<

HunterGreen:
And the thing was (and this is one of the things that annoyed me a 
lot with OotP) that he was inconsistently treating Harry like a 
child. On the one hand he thought Harry was too young to handle the 
information, but on the other hand he thinks Harry is old enough to 
take care of himself after a tramatic experience and handle being 
left in the dark. Most of the adults in Harry's life have this double-
standard: "well, he can't join the order, he's too young", but the 
next moment he's supposed to learn Occulmency, something that's VERY 
difficult, and he's supposed to be able to deal with any problems he 
has by himself, or by asking other children, since he has no access 
to a trusted adult by the end of the book. No wonder the DoM 
catastrophy happened.

The only explanation I can think of for Dumbledore's behavior is that 
the reason he didn't tell Harry about the prophecy in the beginning 
of the book had more to do with him than with Harry (as in, he was 
procrastinating about having such an awkward conversation). Although 
he claims the opposite (I believe) its sort of like he forgot all 
about Harry in OotP. Preparing to fight Voldemort took center-stage, 
and although Harry is involved with that to some degree, Dumbledore 
seemed like he didn't care about Harry's well-being at all. (shades 
of PuppetMaster!Dumbledore, perhaps)

Java:
>>And if you take notice, nobody in this book really was there for 
Harry.
Even Sirius, I think in Chapter 22, after Harry had the very 
disturbing
dream of biting Mr Weasley which turned out to be true, he told Sirius
about it, and was obviously desperate. Yet all Sirius said was "you
need sleep" and left the room.<<

HunterGreen:
That scene seemed odd to me when I first read it. I didn't think 
Harry would go to anyone at all for help, and when he actually did, 
its rather awful that Sirius did *nothing* for him. I think, though, 
that Sirius gets too much credit sometimes, he's not often (or ever) 
shown as someone affectionate or gentle. He can help Harry in the 
ways that he did in GoF (by providing generic advice and 
information), but as emotions go, the guy doesn't even have a handle 
on his own issues. He may just be too unaware to know what to say to 
Harry. Still, its ridiculous that he just brushed it aside.

Java:
>>The same goes for all other adults in that house. Yes, there's this
order from Dumbledore, but they don't have to stay away<<

HunterGreen:
They certainly could take some time to talk to him. Just sit down and 
talk to him like a person rather than just telling him what he is and 
isn't allowed to know, and what he needs to do and needs to concern 
himself with. I don't know if it was written purposely to further the 
angry-Harry storyline or not, but it is an awful lot of adults 
behaving irresponsibly.

Java:
>>At least say, "you know, your dreams might be sent from Voldemort, 
so go practise Occlumency to block them. They're NOT real."<<

HunterGreen:
Yes, that would have been nice. The whole situation was horrifically 
mismanaged. Harry all year is having dreams/flashes of things that 
are ACTUALLY HAPPENING, and one of his dreams saves Mr. Weasley's 
life. Now, after all this, obviously if he has another dream he's not 
going to disregard it. I don't understand why no adult came to Harry 
and told him what to do if he had a vision. The solution was "teach 
Harry occulmency so he doesn't have any more visions.", but there was 
no back-up plan. (from what I understand of occulmency, I'm not even 
sure Harry could block off his mind to implanted dreams from 
Voldemort, it seems too different from the way Occ. is normally 
used). 
I don't know if the whole thing was just a setup for Angry!Harry, a 
setup for Sirius to die, or just a way to drag out the telling of the 
prophecy one more book (from a literary sense it works better at the 
end of OotP, but from a logical sense, it fits better at the end of 
GoF). Personally, after reading OotP a second time, I think of it as 
simply a transistional book. That its about Harry seeing his place in 
the scheme of things and having to accept that.


-HunterGreen (Rebecca)