[HPforGrownups] Cormac Mclaggen?!?

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 168390

On 6 May 2007 at 10:20, finks213 wrote:

> I don't understand how Harry - a 6th year Gryffindor student - has
> never met Cormac Mclaggen, a 7th year Gryffindor student...
> 
> They've been living together for five years, and there aren't that
> many students in each house. I would understand if she'd just
> never
> mentioned him, but JKR actually says that Cormac is a Gryffindor
> student who Harry had never met before.....
> 
> strange....or just silly...

But not impossible for a boy with Harry's history.

Harry suffered significant emotional neglect (to say the least) from the time his parents died 
until he came to Hogwarts. Some children react to such neglect or abuse by having various 
problems forming relationships with other people. Harry doesn't seem to have very serious 
problems in this regard - he does form some close friendships - but it's by no means out of 
the question that he may still have some difficulties.

My experiences were different from Harry's, but I suffered abuse as a child which left me with 
this problem. I've just spent four years studying a University degree with a group of about 100 
other people. I could name, perhaps ten of them - and I could name most of those ten 
because I was in situations where I had to do group assignments with them. When I was at 
school, I could have named perhaps, a quarter of the students I went to school with for years 
- and fully a quarter of them, I would have been hard pressed to recognise as people I was at 
school with. And that went for people in my House as well as those who weren't. If they 
weren't my friends, and they weren't my enemies, I just tended not to notice them.

You can't assume a child with a history of neglect or abuse will form relationships in the same 
way as other people. Some will be totally fine - some are resilient enough to just shrug these 
things off to an extent. Some won't be. Even if they are fine in other ways.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia