How do the books affect children? (was: Why down on all the characters?)

[stephab67]

No: HPFGUIDX 179553

Alla:
Nope, not in my opinion. The fact that Harry is a pariah sometimes
is one of many things that does not make me to think of him as
important person, never will, never would.
 
Magpie:
Then I guess I don't know what to reply to that. The kid is actually
called "The Chosen One." In the newspaper. He's a celebrity. The
biggest celebrity in his world. If Harry isn't an important person I
don't know who possibly could be. He's almost literally the only
person who matters most of the time in his entire world.
> 
> 
Alla:
Oh, of course he is the Chosen one and sure, he is important. I was 
thinking about one of the most recent debates as to whether he is a 
popular guy on campus, because that I disagree with - that he is not 
popular all the time and not with everybody.

Steph:
I agree with Alla here.  Just because Harry is famous doesn't mean 
he's popular.  In fact, he spends much of the time in both GOF and 
OotP being distinctly unpopular.  The rest of the time, he just 
seems like someone no one really pays that much attention to, except 
when something spectacular happens, as in SS and CoS, or when he's 
playing Quidditch.  Overall, Harry doesn't appear to have many 
friends beyond Ron, Hermione, the other Weasleys, Seamus, Neville, 
and Dean.  It's not until HBP that he actually becomes popular, when 
everyone finally realizes that he wasn't making up the stuff about 
Voldie.

I also don't think that Ron was looking to make connections when he 
met Harry.  Ron certainly thought it was cool that Harry was who he 
was, but after that it didn't really seem to matter to Ron that 
Harry was famous.  If you want to finger someone for wanting to be 
friends with Harry just because he's famous, Colin Creevy would be 
your boy.