Harry's developing behaviour - average or unique?

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 118591


Alla wrote :
" Let others scream at Harry to when he deserves it, I think though
that other adults (if you mean them by "people we care about") will be
VERY unlikely to scream at Harry any time soon,even when he deserves
it, since they (especially Dumbledore) may have a guilty conscience 
as to how they treated him in OOP."

Del replies :
I too doubt that DD will ever scream at Harry. First because he does
have a guilty conscience, but mostly because I don't see screaming as
his style.

But the other adults ? I don't think any of them should have a guilty
conscience. And I do think that some of them might start scolding
Harry if he does or says something stupid. I'm thinking of Lupin, for
example. If he's not ESE, then the loss of Sirius should affect him
badly, and this should reflect on his attitude towards both DD and
Harry. The Aurors too, especially Moody, might start acting towards
Harry in a more adult way, no matter what DD thinks. Oh, and
McGonagall too : I'm pretty sure she won't take any foolishness from
Harry any longer. She was already quite upset with him for not
realising who Umbridge really was, and what danger she represented.
I'm sure she will be sympathetic to Harry because of the loss and pain
he's suffered, but I also think that at the same time she will demand
a more reasonable behaviour from him.

And I wasn't thinking only about the adults either. I would like to
see the kids reacting more to Harry too. I wish Ron and Hermione
stopped taking Harry's mood swings so passively. They too are
teenagers after all, and they too almost died during the DoM fiasco.
As for Ginny, we already know that she doesn't take much crap from
Harry anyway.

I'm not wishing for any character to start pounding on Harry. That's
not what I mean. All I would like to see is some *life* in the other
characters. In OoP, it often looks like Harry is the only one who's
got a real life. Some other characters do have emotional outbursts
(Cho cries, Neville learns to fight), but there's nothing consistent
(except maybe for Luna).

I do know that the books are about Harry, and also that if JKR started
writing a real life about too many minor characters, the books would
triple in volume. I know that. But the fact that OoP was so intensely
focused on Harry's volatile emotions, and that no other character
seemed to have a real life of their own, made the reading of the book
quite flat for me.

It's a bit like when a fanfiction author introduces a new character
and concentrates only on that character. The other characters still
act and speak, but somehow it feels like their only role is to make
life more "interesting" for the main character.

Now, I know that this IS the case in HP, and that everyone around
Harry is only a supporting character. But I never felt this as
strongly in the previous books, and I must admit it bothers me quite a
bit in OoP.

I'm not sure I'm making much sense, sorry.

Del