[ SECRET POST #2732 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2732 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 020 secrets from Secret Submission Post #390.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - spam ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[quantumreality]

On reflection, it's like Harry got banged up one side and down the other with the Stupid Stick. There are just so many things he's either completely clueless about or making such elementary mistakes doing that it bothers me.

I mean, to name off a few things -

1. Not pushing harder to get someone to find out about his "I must not tell lies" blood quill writing. Dumbledore would have laid the smack down on Umbridge in like 0.00001 seconds if he ever found that out.
2. Hermione talks about Occlumency like she's researched it. Why doesn't Harry pull that thread and get the books she's read instead of making it an endurance contest with Snape? If one way doesn't work (Snape bashing his mind repeatedly), find another, don't just keep repeating it.
3. Being so stupid as to not open Sirius's present. Harry's curiosity in canon is sometimes absolutely insatiable, and yet the one thing he might just want to take a peek at, he doesn't. Even if he didn't want Sirius to risk himself, opening the present up in and of itself can hardly hurt.

And that ties into....

4. Everybody's told him Voldemort can send him visions. I get that he's a teenager under incredible stress, but I can think of a dozen ways the Dept of Mysteries chapters could have gone down differently if he'd stopped and kicked his brain into gear for longer than just pro forma acknowledging Hermione's concerns and haring off the instant Kreacher claims Sirius isn't present at 12 G.P.?

*sigh*

It's a pivotal book in a lot of ways, but it's blatantly obvious how much of it has contrived plotting for the sake of JK Rowling setting up for Sirius's death, as well as for the prophecy involving him and Voldemort.

[(Anonymous)]

1. I was annoyed about that when I first read the book as a teenager, but in retrospect it seemed to me Harry was simply prideful...I don't know if that's right, though, I just remember that being my impression on a reread.
2. Harry doesn't seem very booksmart to begin with, which is why I assume he's good at DAtDA, since it's mostly hands-on asskicking, which he does like and have experience with. I agree it would have been smart to try, but plenty of teenagers are of the mindset that they don't want to try something to begin with, and I don't know of too many times Harry was willing to try anything other than his gut instinct.
3. I actually can't remember what this alludes to.

[quantumreality]

1. That's part of the problem. There's a time for pride and then there's a time to ask for help and if McGonagall won't do it (admittedly she didn't know the details, but she shut him down by telling him to "keep his head down"), find someone else.
2. Harry being able to go with his gut and usually come out on the right end of things is an admirable trait, but it's pretty obvious that sometimes there's information simply not available by flying by the seat of one's pants.
3. In OotP, Sirius hands Harry a wrapped present somewhat clandestinely. Harry, believing it will somehow end up pulling Sirius out of 12 G.P., resolutely decides not to open it to keep Sirius safe, he believes.

Except that it was the communication mirror, and if he'd known about it he could have called Sirius in complete safety and verified from Sirius's own voice that he wasn't captured by Voldemort in the Dept of Mysteries.

Remember when he finally unwraps it, reads the note, and gets so upset he smashes the mirror?