Secrets of Harry's past WASRe: On the Issue of "Boys will be Boys" Chapt 14 Disc

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 190098

 
> Alla:
> 
> Lupin is alive however and I am sure he (or JKR for him) can come up with many legit  justifications for not doing it, my point is I am not ready to buy them.
> 
> And of course there is Dumbledore, who could have I don't know, call Harry to his office and give him the photo book and tell him a little about his parents, without talking about major spoilers in the story.
> 

Pippin:

Do you not buy Lupin's fear and rejection of his own wife and son? Because I think that's a very moving part of the story and it finally gives us the reasons for his ambivalence with Harry -- and with Sirius and James, too. I mean, he must have known, back in the day, that Sirius suspected him of being the spy, but he never had it out with him. If my  best friend thought I was a murdering traitor, I'd have something to say about it, you know? But I'm not Lupin. 

Dumbledore does tell Harry  things about his parents, for example that the cloak belonged  to James and he used it to steal food from the kitchens, that he once saved Snape's life, that Lily died to save Harry and her love is with Harry always, part of his very skin, and that James is also still a part of him. I do not recall that he ever refused to answer any questions Harry had about them or even steered the conversation away. When Harry has an opportunity to ask him questions, it's generally Voldemort he wants to know about, first, last and always. 

Also, there were things besides the prophecy that Dumbledore didn't think Harry was ready to know, or that would have impinged on other's secrets. He obviously wouldn't have wanted to tell Harry that James was the leader of a gang of bullies and troublemakers or that Lily and Snape had been so close. But it would have been difficult and scarcely honest to have a detailed conversation about James and Lily's times at Hogwarts and leave that out. Which goes for Hagrid also.

Harry tries to hide his tears when Dumbledore speaks about Lily. He doesn't like to show his grief to Dumbledore and Dumbledore respects that, IMO, if only for reasons of his own. But it  would be surprising if  none of the photographs of James and Lily came from Dumbledore, since Hagrid brags about how close they were to him. And who told Hagrid that Harry didn't have any photographs of his parents, if Dumbledore did not? 

I'd also remind you that Dumbledore gave Harry the Resurrection Stone and Harry ultimately rejected it.  Harry decides that his destiny is not to recover his lost family, that was a childish dream, but to make a new family of his own. In that he's able to go beyond his mentor, who never stopped looking back and ultimately destroyed himself by doing so. 

Pippin