Stupid things characters do to the sake of the plot

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 94630

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Robert Jones" 
<jones.r.h.j at w...> wrote:
> I finished rereading COS last night, and I noticed that some of the 
> characters do stupid things for which there is no explanation 
except 
> that they are necessary to advance the plot.  Here are two examples 
> from COS.
> 
<heavily snipped>

Geoff:
But haven't you ever done something in a moment of stress and thought 
afterwards, "Why did I do that? How daft."

A couple of years ago, I was out with my dogs and one of them got 
caught in a wire fence and, in fright, bit me badly. I had a mobile 
phone with me and rang home to ask my wife to contact a friend to 
bring wire cutters. Later, she said to me "Why did you ring home? You 
know Peter's phone number from memory? You could have saved time by 
ringing him directly." 

True. I just went into flap mode which is precisely what Ron did. 
Harry suggested waiting by the car but Ron jumped at using it to 
catch up. 

Lockhart also appears to be in flap mode when Ron and Harry confront 
him; throwing clothes and belongings into a trunk, rushing around 
madly.........