Harry's Eyesight

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 91351

sawsan_issa wrote:
I have read that Harry's eyes are weak, and that JKR stresses
the importance of his glasses.

Berit replies:

I'm sure we'll get to know what Rowling means when she says Harry's 
eyes are weak and that he needs his glasses. Doesn't sound like the 
regular problem of nearsightedness (though he is that too). What I 
noticed in OoP, is that most of the time (though not always) Harry 
*doesn't* have his glasses on when he shares the MoM corridor dreams 
with Voldemort. A lot of these dreams occur when Harry is sleeping. 
Naturally he takes his glasses off before going to bed... Just a 
quote from the incident when he saw Mr. Weasley being attacked by a 
serpent:

"Harry was so relieved she [McGonagall] was taking him seriously that 
he did not hesitate, but jumped out of bed at once, pulled on his 
dressing gown and pushed the glasses back on to his nose." (OoP p. 
412 UK Ed).

Also, even more interestingly, Harry either did not wear his glasses 
when Voldemort possessed him, or lost them during the course of the 
possession in the MoM scene!

Quote: " And as Harry's heart filled with emotion, the creature's 
coils loosened, the pain was gone; Harry was lying face down on the 
floor, *his glasses gone*, shivering as though he lay upon ice, not 
wood... Harry opened his eyes, saw his glasses lying by the heel of 
the headless statue that had been guarding him... He put them on and 
raised his head a little to find Dumbledore's crooked nose inches 
from his own." (OoP p. 720 UK Ed).

I don't know if the glasses give him/his eyes some sort of 
protection, but it is interesting that Harry losing his glasses is 
one of the details Rowling chose to add to this scene...

There is one important "dream-scene" though where it looks like Harry 
did have his glasses on, and that's when he has the Voldemort-induced 
dream of Sirius being tortured in the MoM. The only mentioning of 
Harry's eyes is that they were stinging and watering as he worked on 
his exam paper. It would be natural to assume that he wore his 
glasses when he was doing the exam. There is no mentioning of him 
taking them off.

Sooo, I guess this means Voldemort could still get at Harry when he 
had his glasses on...

Berit
http://home.no.net/berjakob/snape.html