Did Harry Notice?

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 182859

"... pulled out the wand beneath his cloak and pointed it at the 
door, which burst open."
"He was over the threshold as James came sprinting into the hall. It 
was easy, too easy, he had not even picked up his wand...."
....
Hold him off, without a wand in his hand!..."
....
"She had no wand upon her either.... How stupid they were, and how 
trusting, thinking that their safety lay in friends, that weapons 
could be discarded even for moments...."
<DH pp. 343-4, US Ed.>

So maybe JKR wanted to make a point; James and Lily were *too* 
trusting of friendship, loyalty, courage, and those things that they 
themselves  seemed to be born with. Was this a logical way to make 
that point? IMO, no. 

I can't see James, who moments before was entertaining Harry with his 
wand and had just dropped it on the sofa he was sitting on, respond 
to the door bursting open without snatching up his wand. This makes 
no sense for a 21-year-old wizard that was raised in the wizarding 
world. Lily, taking Harry up for bed, yeah I could see her not taking 
care to have her wand on her. But not James. This took me right out 
of the story, especially since I knew for the most part what was 
going to happen from then on.

After the things Voldemort had told Harry about his dad in PS/SS and 
in the graveyard of GoF, we and Harry were under the impression that 
James had put up a *good* fight, or at least had represented himself 
well. I don't see how standing in front of Voldemort, wandless, 
waiting to be AKed can be construed, as Voldemort himself said in 
PS: "Yes, boy, your parents were brave... I killed your father first, 
and he put up a courageous fight..." <SS p.294, US> OK, brave, umm 
yeah, I can see that. A kind of thoughtless bravery. But "put up a 
courageous fight"? How? With what?

But that wasn't my question, was it? Did Harry notice? I don't see 
how he couldn't have noticed, Voldemort made a point of noticing it 
twice with James and once with Lily. It was the basis for his 
stricture on trusting. So it must not have mattered. But how could it 
not matter? And how could James be credited by Voldemort himself with 
putting up *any* fight? Is this bad writing, forgeting the previous 
backstory given us, or am I missing something?

Two more things from this chapter and LV reminiscing. I noticed that 
Lily starts crying "Not Harry" before Voldemort tells her to stand 
aside. This seems to indicate that she was aware that Voldemort was 
after Harry. So Dumbledore must have told them at least that. And I 
cannot see him stopping there and the Potters accepting it. IOW, why 
would this evil, powerful, dark lord be after a child? The Potters 
would want to know how that made any sense. Dumbledore must have told 
them something about the prophesy, even Dumbledore's penchant for 
secrecy shouldn't have stopped him from telling James and Lily why 
they were going into hiding to protect Harry.

The second thing is a line after the GH reminiscing is done, but 
while Harry is still in Voldemort's mind:

"The snake rustled on the filthy, cluttered floor, and he had killed 
the boy, and yet he *was* the boy...."  <DH p.345, US>

I'm confused by this line. If we are in Harry's mind while Harry is 
in Voldemort's mind (but about to come out of LV's mind), then I sort 
of see the "he *was* the boy" making sense. But what does the "he had 
killed the boy" mean from anybody's point of view? Who had killed 
what boy? In the preceeding lines, part of LV's reminiscing, 
Voldemort was broken and planning on fleeing from house where the 
*screaming* (very much alive Harry) was trapped. So Harry can't be 
the "killed boy", can he?

Mike, not sure what he's missing here, but knowing he's missing 
something :-?