How dim is Harry? - his official History

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 98442

Wanda:
> Hang on, though - what about other news sources?  Didn't 
Uncle  Vernon know a Muggle's version of Sirius Black's 
exploits? < 

Pippin:
No. The Muggle witnesses to Black's crimes were memory 
charmed. PoA ch 10. And since when has Uncle Vernon been 
willing to answer Harry's questions?

Wanda:
>And at the beginning of OotP, Harry is eavesdropping on the TV 
news, hoping  to hear anything about Voldemort.  Why wouldn't 
he have gone looking  through back issues of the newspapers, 
to see how news of the WW had  trickled down into the Muggle 
world? <

Pippin:
 The Dursleys never let Harry belong to the library. And his 
research skills have never been very good anyway. He just 
doesn't retain information the way Hermione does. When he 
looks up stuff on his own, he gets distracted by people with 
weird names and never remembers exactly what it was they did.

As for getting books out of the Hogwarts library, can you imagine 
what Draco would have said if he'd spotted Harry with a copy of 
Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts? 'Look, Pottie's reading about 
*himself*. Can I have a signed copy, Pottie?'

Harry also is extremely reluctant to ask any question he thinks 
will make him look stupid. There's only a few people he trusts 
not to make fun of his ignorance. Don't-you -*read*-Hermione 
isn't one of them. I admit that he is eventually going to have to get 
over this, and I think we've seen signs of it in OOP already 


Pippin