Chapter Discussion: Chapter Fourteen, Goblet of Fire: The Unforgivable Curses

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 192205

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:

Pippin:
> Yes, Harry does notice when Neville is upset, and also when he feels better. Harry thinks, IIRC, that giving Neville the herbology book was something Lupin might have done. But Harry's interest doesn't extend to wondering why Neville reacted the way he did. Harry isn't curious about Neville's backstory (or anyone's, really.) It's convenient for JKR's plotting, but Harry has certainly absorbed from the Dursleys the idea that he shouldn't ask questions, especially about the past.

Geoff:
I'm not sure that the "Dursley syndrome" is the main reason. I have said in 
the past that JKR has a surprisingly good handle on the teenage male mind.

Expanding a little on remarks I made in an earlier post about my own 
experience, when I was at school in my teens. I had a small number of very 
close friends and yet, we would fairly rarely talk about families or siblings. 
In the case of once of my closest friends, I knew that he lived with his mother 
who worked full-time but never knew anything about his father; I never asked, 
he never volunteered information because it didn't impact on what we did or 
talked about together. A second friend also lived with his mother but she was 
always at home but I did gather that she had a pension and that his father 
had been killed in RAF service in WWII. Outside school, I had a different circle 
of friends and we would all meet up at weekends but again, our knowledge of 
each other's family background was sketchy.

So I see Harry as being a fairly normal being, interacting with the others - in 
my view - as a fairly typical teenager.