First lesson WAS: Re: Marietta, was Slytherin's Reputation

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 185861

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:

Alla:

> > > Heh, of course not. I was saying that his fall was embarrassing
> for > Flitiwick, not for Harry IMO.

Montavilla47:
> > I would think it would be embarrassing for Harry as well--at least a
> little and here's why:  The next year, Lockhart makes a bigger fool of
> himself and Harry finds that highly embarrassing.  He also finds Colin
> Creevey embarrassing.  You could argue that both of those people are
> only embarrassing themselves--but it's evident that Harry *hates* the
> attention that both of them bring to him.  
> > 
> > He even gets embarrassed by Ginny's attentions--and again, Ginny is
> really only embarrassing herself.

Carol:
> I agree with you, though I suppose having a dwarf dressed up like
> Cupid and singing, "his eyes are as green as a pickled toad," made
> Ginny's adoration the most intolerable of all.
> 
> Unfortunately, we're not given Harry's reaction to Flitwick's excited
> squeak and toppling off his chair. Suppose that Harry had liked it and
> felt flattered and wanted more of the same (as I suspect James would
> have in the same situation)? 

Geoff:
But he didn't. You can speculate on "what ifs" until the cows come home. 
Harry didn't like it and he is not like James in that way.

Carol:
> That, I think, would have been worse for
> him by far than Snape's publicly exposing his ignorance (which is,
> after all, no worse than most other first-years'). 

Geoff:
The main facts are that Harry was an eleven year old boy who 
had been downtrodden by his relatives for years and was suddenly 
pitchforked into the wizarding world - a world which to him was 
completely strange and in which he felt very uncertain.

At this point in time he was still trying to come to terms with being 
a wizard. In no way was he revelling in his fame.

Only a few weeks before, he had felt totally unfitted:

'Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his 
eyes but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite 
sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could 
he possibly be?...

...If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come 
Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?

"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I 
don't think I can be a wizard."'
(PS "The Keeper of the Keys" p.47 UK edition)

Even when he arrived at Hogwarts, he still felt inferior:

'"There, look."
"Where?"
"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."
"Wearing the glasses?"
"Did you see his face?"
"Did you see ois scar?"
Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory 
next day.  People queueing outside classrooms stood on tiptoe
to get a look at him or doubled back to pass him in the corridors 
again, staring. Harry wishes they wouldn't because he was trying 
to concentrate on finding his way to classes."
(PS "The Potions Master" p. 98 UK edition)

'And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the 
lessons themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly 
found out,than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.'
(ibid. p.99)

Doesn't sound like someone full of confidence or brash enough to 
be cheeky, does it?

We know from later events that Harry hates the limelight. Colin Creevy 
drives him round the bend with his persistent stalking; he is very 
unhappy when his name comes out of the Goblet of Fire and he 
is very quick to let Scrimgeour that he, in no way wished to be the 
Ministry poster boy.

What Harry wishes is not to be wanted or courted as the Boy-Who-
Lived but to be accepted as just plain Harry and it is this which he 
largely gets from Ron and Hermione and from most of the others in 
his dormitory.

Snape did not need to take him down a peg or  two. If he had had the 
sense to actually observe Harry for a lesson or two, a great deal of 
future confrontations, problems and misunderstandings would have 
been avoided.

There is an old English saying:
"Some are born great. Some achieve greatness. Some have greatness 
thrust upon them"

Guess to which category I think Harry belongs.