CHAPDISC: HBP4, Horace Slughorn

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 143390

> > 10. We know that Harry does not ask questions about his parents
> > even in those rare situations when he has the chance to do so.
> > Here Harry meets the man who taught his mother, who seems to like
> > his mother very much and Harry is still not asking him any
> > questions about Lily. What do you think about it?
> 
> Jen: Grrrrr. You mean besides JKR stringing this out as long as 
she 
> can, refusing to spill the beans on Lily? ;)
> 
a_svirn:
You know, it's really the most interesting question. But I would 
even expand it a bit. I find the omissions of the 4th chapter no 
less interesting than what is really happening there. Why on earth 
didn't Harry discuss the events of previous chapter and ask 
questions that have been so prominent in our on-list discussion? 
It's not like he knows what sort of agreement or contract Dumbledore 
had with Petunia. If there *was* a contract at all surely he would 
be most interested in its terms? 

We have been attempting an in-depth semantic analysis of the word 
*grudgingly* , wondering what else was in that letter and why 
Petunia was "oddly flushed" and pondering the legal ramification of 
Harry's being left in the foster care. And here is Harry in a 
company of the only man who knows the answers, one moreover who has 
just brought up this subject in the Dursleys' living-room, thus 
giving Harry a convenient opening, and what does Harry do? Discusses 
Daily Prophet's editorials.  Now why? It's downright befuddling, 
actually. It is the matter of his life and his survival after all.