[HPforGrownups] Scene with likeable James WAS: Re: Eileen Pince

[Marion Ros]

No: HPFGUIDX 156410

Joe:
>>>I'm not saying James and Sirius hexing people is a good thing. I am saying it isn't the horror some might try and make it out to be.
Yeah Harry did misunderstand it but Harry lived under a cupboard when he should have been interacting with people his own age. He is behind on that sort of thing even after a few years at school.<<<


Marion:
But Joe, Harry *has* been interacting with people his own age. He even *lives* with one: his cousin.
Of course I totally agree with you. A bit of roughing up, a punch or a hex here or there, it's just boy's being boys. So what if they call eachother names like Snivellus or Freak or make other people his own age afraid to associate with him for fear of being punche or hexed by Piers, Big D, Jimmy-the-Stag or DogBoy or whatever those kids call themselves these days, it's just friendly horsing around. 

 Joe:
>> Yet the only observer we state states "That Snape was clearly 
unpopular." With no other canon evidence to the contrary it is safe 
to say that he WAS clearly unpopular.<<


Marion:
Well, if you're unpopular with the kids on the playground you obviously deserve to be horsed around. You're obviously doing *something* wrong if you're not popular, so being punched a bit can be expected, and certainly your own doing. I mean, they're *asking* for it, don't they, with that nose and those glasses and that *scar*! And the *hair*! All over the place and greasy. Really, can't the kid use a comb? Personal hygiene is a dead giveaway, really, at what kind of person one is, and if they can't be bothered to wash their hair... And those clothes! About thirteen sizes too big, and him a scrawny skinny kid. Really, it's just boys being boys, but really, when a skinny, spindly, gawkish, geeky kid goes around wearing clothes so old and crappy that you can hardly see what colour they used to be, they're so grey from all the washing, they're just asking to be the butt of a few jokes. But jokes is all it is, really. Harmless little pranks. They're just kids after all. You can't blame kids for being a bit exuberant! And when weird looking boys walk around the playground like they own it, because they think their so good, so much *better* because they get good grades and stuff, well they need to be taken down a peg or two. They're just begging for a bit of adjustment. It's just boys establishing the pecking-order on the playground. Happens all over. Every boy does it, really. No harm done.


Marion (who hopes the gentle reader understand the meaning of the word 'irony'. No. Not 'rather like iron')
Marion also thinks that Harry has difficulty trusting adults and taking advise, even from his friends, which isn't surprising since Harry had to raise himself. He only trusts himself. A therapist would have a field day with Harry, I suppose.I don't like the character, there's something about Harry that both annoys me and creeps me out and unless he grows enormously in book 7 I doubt I'll ever like him, but I *can* empathize with him. Growing up, ever the Outsider, never allowed to join in, be it in the familyhome or on the playground, must have left it's scars on Harry's psyche, imo. So I agree with Joe that Harry lacks certain socializing experiences in his early youth. He sometimes shows the tendency to overlook iffy behaviour from those he considers on his side and will always look for evidence of evil intent in the behaviour of those he considers enemies, but the implication that this would make his such a bad eyewitness as to totally misinterpret a friendly scrum for bullying or even misreads who the agressor in that memory was, is a bit over the top, imo. 

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