Adults "failing" Harry (was: Themes in OotP)

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 119925


SSSusan:
Oh my goodness! I hope I didn't give the impression that I think
OotP was crap. 


Dungrollin:
Sorry, bad choice of word there... I didn't think it was crap, 
either.

SSSusan:
<snip>
So what I'm left with is an annoyance with DD that's greater than I
realized it was before. I do understand your point about DD knowing
more than we do, esp. about the connection, and I hope you're right
that we'll discover enough more about this in 6 or 7 that we'll say a
big, "Ohhhh!"

BUT. I still think that, even if DD was convinced Voldy would try to
use the connection to get Harry to turn on him [DD] if he suspected
their relationship was close, and thus he felt the need to avoid
being together much and looking into Harry's eyes, I still think he
could have communicated via some other method. You know, one of
those Mission: Impossible self-destructing tapes <g> or a letter he
instructs Harry to burn immediately.


Dungrollin:
There's something about DD that was causing either the scar 
connection or the bit of Voldy that's in Harry's head to act
up.  And who's to say that reading a letter from DD might not
have triggered something similar?  I know it's an odd idea, but 
since we don't know how the scar connection works from Voldy's point 
of view, it is a possibility.  


SSSusan:
Harry has always pleased DD with his strength and courage and
bravery, with his ability to handle things many adult wizards could
not have handled. I guess I think for all Harry was annoyed with DD
in OotP, if DD had made that effort to really explain how vital it
was that Harry trust him, that he work on Occlumency so Voldy
couldn't feed him any lies, Harry would have worked to please DD
again. You know? Just *enough* detail and personal touch that
Harry'd say, "DD trusts me enough to tell me some stuff; he *hasn't*
abandoned me; I'm going to work even though *Professor* Snape is a
prick." [Gotta get that line in somewhere.]

And if Harry *had* been so willing, he might have succeeded at
Occlumency and therefore shut down Voldy's intrusions.


Dungrollin:
I agree with you here, that Harry may have tried harder with the 
Occlumency if DD had explained why it was important.  But I'm not 
certain that DD had a choice.  (I don't know that I actually
believe this argument, I'm just trying to find another way of 
looking at it.)


SSSusan:
Now, did DD *not* do this with Harry for a good reason? I'm sure he
thought so at the time. It was out of love, out of wanting to
protect him, just like Molly's mollycoddling. But DD always seems to
*know* more than others, and I would've thought he could have seen
how his tack could really backfire....


Dungrollin:
Ideally, DD should have told Harry about the prophecy at the end of 
GoF, right after the graveyard scene, but he put it off.  Harry had 
been through too much already, later, later...  Presumably at some 
point after that, DD learned something or figured something out that 
made him nervous of having too much contact with Harry, and so he 
was *unable* to tell him about the prophecy – and nobody else (at 
least IMO) knew the contents, they only knew it was something Voldy 
wanted.  (Still don't understand why Harry didn't feel the snake 
inside him in DD's office at the end of OotP, though.)  

But, to be honest, would a letter from DD in January, saying
`Harry, it's really really really important that you learn
Occlumency' have made any difference?  He'd already been told
that it was important, and that DD thought it was important.  What 
*would* have made a difference would be Harry having known that 
Voldy wanted to trick him into going to the DoM; and to know that, 
he'd have had to have known about the prophecy.  And if his 
curiosity wasn't to get the better of him again, he'd have had to 
know the *contents* of the prophecy, not just of its existence, or 
he'd have gone running off to the DoM to find out what it was about.

And, quite apart from it having to be secret and everything, it's 
really not the sort of thing you could put in a letter, is it?

Hmmm.  I'm not sure it's convincing.  What do you think?