Secrets of Harry's past - Tranfer, or not, of Information.

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 190089

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "kathy" <kat7555 at ...> wrote:

Kathy:
> I don't blame Lupin for not telling Harry about his friendship with
> his parents. I do blame Dumbledore for his role in Harry's lack of
> information. He sent Harry to live with Vernon Dursley who is a bigot
> and Petunia who was jealous of her sister's abilities. They were never
> going to tell the truth about who he really was. They weren't going to
> comfort him when Harry grieved over the loss of the parents he never
> knew. Harry did ask for information and they lied so why would he
> bother asking again? Harry really doesn't know who he can trust to
> tell him the truth so he keeps quiet.

Geoff:
To a large extent I agree with you, but there is another angle to Harry
keeping quiet in addition to not trusting folk:

'The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin
scar on his forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had 
had it as long as he could remember and the first question he could ever 
remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had got it.

"In the car crash where your parents died." she had said. "And don't ask
questions."

Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the 
Dursleys.' 
(PS "The Vanishing Glass" p.20 UK edition)

Silence = peace, what Harry might consider a semblance of peace. He 
has endured nearly eleven years of this sort of put-down. Is it surprising 
that "silence is golden" is branded into his psyche?