Harry's questions about his parents (was Harry, Hermione, Sirius, and the Dream, 2-way mirror)

[ms_luna_knows]

No: HPFGUIDX 117389


Juli wrote:
> "...If I was Harry I would have gotten as much information as possible about my parents and my grand-parents, but he didn't. I don't think he even knows his grand-parents name. He's never asked anyone were his money came from. Nothing, he doesn't seem to want to know anything at all. ... "

Beatnik:
> I always found this trait of Harry's annoying, as well.  It's not  like he's not a curious person.  He's always questioning: what's  Fluffy guarding, what's in the CoS, what's at the end of that  corridor, etc.  But most of these are internal wonderings, or, at most, shared with Ron and Hermione, never with an adult.  The only explanation I can come up with is Harry's upbringing.
<snip>
> Another possible reason that Harry doesn't ask questions about his family, is that it's painful to hear about the parents and grandparents that he's never going to have, especially when he can't change their fates.  Harry is an action guy - it would be very hard for him to learn about something he cannot change.  Consciously, or subconsciously, he knows this, and so doesn't ask the questions in the first place.
>
> It kind of makes sense, from Harry's position, even if it is infuriating for us.

Ms. Luna:
I have always been confused by Harry's lack of "interest" in his family, until I think of my Grandfather.  His mother died during the flu epidemic in 1919 when my Grandfather was 2 days old and  my grandfather, and his 3 other siblings were raised by 3 different families. But my grandfather didn't know he was adopted until he was 13 and told so by one of his blood relations.  Since I found out this information, from my grandmother, I have been doing geneological research to discover who my great-grandparents were, but my grandfather doesn't want to hear any of it.....it's very strange to me, because I think I would want to find out everything I could about them.  My grandfather feels that by finding out about his birth parents he is somehow disrespecting his adopted family. I think that maybe Harry's reasoning for not finding out about his
parents at every opportunity is he has an idealized picture in his mind of his family, and is afraid to "mess it up, somehow "disrespecting" his internal view.  He also as alot of information about himself and this new world he finds himself in that he has to sort through, plus he is a teenager, that anymore new information may make his "head explode". We also must remember that Harry's last bit of information (from Snape's pensive) about is father was very negative...it's either fear or teenage angst that is keeping Harry from finding out more about his family. ---IMHO   :-)
Ms. Luna