Harry does cry Re: Of Sorting and Snape

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 175679

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lizzyben04" <lizzyben04 at ...> 
wrote:
Hi Carol, I'll try to connect this better to the canon events. I do
think that the novels seem to send a message that crying is bad.
Other people have brought up the fact that Harry thinks Ginny is so
great because she never cries, & she seems to react often w/anger &
emotional explosions (hexes) instead. This is seen as a *good* thing.
Cho is often derided by the other characters for being weepy & weak -
even though, if you think about her POV for a second, she has
plenty of good reasons to cry - she's grieving! Moaning Myrtle is
also an object of derision - although the murdered girl also has
plenty of reasons to be upset. And despite all his traumas, Harry is
never allowed, once, to cry. Ever.

Va32h:

I have to disagree with you there.

In PS, Dumbledore tells Harry how his mother's love protected him so 
that Quirrel could not bear to touch him: "It was agony to touch a 
person marked by something so good."

Then, Dumbledore pretended to be very interested in a bird outside 
the window "which gave Harry time to dry his eyes on the sheet."

In GoF, when Harry is telling Dumbledore about what happened in the 
graveyard, there comes a time when he "found his throat obstructed" 
which requires more interpretation on our parts but which I consider 
choking back tears. 

In OoTP, after hearing the prophecy, Harry spends an afternoon 
walking around the lake, avoiding everybody and mourning Sirius. At 
the end of his reverie, he returns to castle "wiping his face on his 
sleeve as he went."

In HBP, when talking to the other professors after Dumbledore's 
death, he starts to say that the students should be allowed to stay 
at school to say goodbye, but "the last word caught in his throat." 
Again, an interpretation, but I'd at least grant him "choked up" on 
that one. 

And of course, in Deathly Hallows, Harry very clearly cries at his 
parents' graves. 

So perhaps three clear instances and two vague allusions to crying 
over the course of 7 years and umpteen traumatic experiences isn't 
much, but Harry *does* cry. He would just prefer not to, and 
certainly not to do it in front of others. 

I have to wonder what kind of response Baby Harry received from the 
Dursleys, when he cried in those first few weeks at Privet Drive? I 
would guess that Harry learned at a very early age not to cry. 

va32h