CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 2: Aunt Marge's Big Mistake

[nikkalmati]

No: HPFGUIDX 189424



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bart at ...> wrote:
>
>   Nikkalmati:
> > Harry was strongly motivated to behave himself in order to get Vernon to sign his permission slip.  He tried to stay out of the way, but his presence at dinner was required.  Vernon know it entertained his sister to poke at Harry. It is hard to imagine that if I had special powers I would be able to control myself in such a situation.  Harry was under control until she  attacked his parents.  Of course, he knew by now the the story she believed was untrue, but he could not tell her the truth under pain of expulsion or worse, he thought.
> 
>      Harry's major weakness was his temper. He allowed it to get the 
> better of him far too many times. I do not think it was a coincidence 
> that it first really shows up in POA, where he ends up reuniting with 
> Sirius, and that it was one of the factors that led to the death of 
> Sirius in OOP. I don't know if JKR has said anything about this (I tend 
> not to bother to read her interviews), but, now that I think about it, 
> this episode was designed to show a character flaw which Harry had to 
> overcome in order to defeat Morty (also interesting that you can see why 
> Sevvy was so exasperated by Harry's refusal to learn emotional control).
> 
>      Bart
>
Nikkalmati

Well, it is the first time Harry gets into a snit and runs off into danger.  He could have been killed or injured as far as he knew, but who can blame him?  Was Sirius always hanging about or did he just happen to be there on the night Harry left?  Was he protecting Harry?  How did he know where Harry was? They apparently never discussed it later as far as we know.

Nikkalmati