By your logic anyone who hits the legal definition of adulthood in their country/world is automatically a mature, rational, emotionally capable person. He's still a teenager at seventeen, and I wasn't specific about age. He's a teenager from book three through book seven. Even when he's seventeen he is still a teenager. Are you telling me that every single person who is eighteen (in America), for example, is a mature, responsible adult, emotionally capable of handling a situation like the one Harry is faced with? Because I know plenty of adults who can barely handle their own lives, let alone the weight of the world.
Just because someone is legally classified as an adult, does not mean they are fully capable.
And you say "in the beginning", but in the beginning he is eleven. He was a child. Just because you come face to face with the person who killed your parents doesn't mean you are emotionally or rationally capable of thinking through and planning study sessions. The library was a place for studying for school, and when necessary breaking rules. He didn't know until the fifth book that it was completely up to him, and that was at the end. He has limited resources over summer and by the sixth book, he is learning what he can from Dumbledore. He wouldn't have found anything real on Horcruxes in the libraries of Hogwarts anyhow.
Your applying mature logic not only to a child but to an abused, neglected child. Yes, he is special, he is the hero, but that doesn't mean he's perfect. He's flawed, he makes mistakes. As a child, he was not expected to be the face of the war, and then by the time Voldemort does return, you have other complications like the lies being spread about Voldemort's return. Harry assumes it is more important for the truth to be revealed than for him to be on forefront of battle. Yes, he does tend to put himself out there in the midst of it, but he doesn't consciously plan to always be in the midst of it.
I think he did care enough. He did a lot to prepare, but he was still a child. A young child who could not possibly know everything that was going to happen. In GoF he practises his spells for a tournament that he had no idea had anything to do with Voldemort; in PoA he takes the initiative to learn the Patronus Charm which is advanced magic; in OotP through Hermione's help he teaches other students how to defend themselves. There is a lot of initiative on Harry's part, more than would be expected of any child at his age. Not everyone is going to respond the same to the things Harry experienced. Maybe someone else, like Hermione, would have looked up spells to practise but Harry isn't her. He's Harry. The actions one person might take are not the actions he might take.
Also, I don't think you understand what I mean by "action". I don't mean 'practise spells', which goes along with being studios in his world. I mean jumping into the fray without thought. I mean something present, that gets results fast. Instant action. He's good at DAtD but Harry isn't a patient person on the whole and looking up spells to practise would get boring.
For instance, even thought the TriWizard Tournement was a big deal and he was the youngest, Harry's initiative only stretched so far. I understand that as the person everything relies on, taking more initiative would have been smart, but that's not Harry. I'm not saying his actions were completely intelligent. They weren't thought out and that is the point. It's a character flaw of his that we see consistently which is attributed to his youth.
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Just because someone is legally classified as an adult, does not mean they are fully capable.
And you say "in the beginning", but in the beginning he is eleven. He was a child. Just because you come face to face with the person who killed your parents doesn't mean you are emotionally or rationally capable of thinking through and planning study sessions. The library was a place for studying for school, and when necessary breaking rules. He didn't know until the fifth book that it was completely up to him, and that was at the end. He has limited resources over summer and by the sixth book, he is learning what he can from Dumbledore. He wouldn't have found anything real on Horcruxes in the libraries of Hogwarts anyhow.
Your applying mature logic not only to a child but to an abused, neglected child. Yes, he is special, he is the hero, but that doesn't mean he's perfect. He's flawed, he makes mistakes. As a child, he was not expected to be the face of the war, and then by the time Voldemort does return, you have other complications like the lies being spread about Voldemort's return. Harry assumes it is more important for the truth to be revealed than for him to be on forefront of battle. Yes, he does tend to put himself out there in the midst of it, but he doesn't consciously plan to always be in the midst of it.
I think he did care enough. He did a lot to prepare, but he was still a child. A young child who could not possibly know everything that was going to happen. In GoF he practises his spells for a tournament that he had no idea had anything to do with Voldemort; in PoA he takes the initiative to learn the Patronus Charm which is advanced magic; in OotP through Hermione's help he teaches other students how to defend themselves. There is a lot of initiative on Harry's part, more than would be expected of any child at his age. Not everyone is going to respond the same to the things Harry experienced. Maybe someone else, like Hermione, would have looked up spells to practise but Harry isn't her. He's Harry. The actions one person might take are not the actions he might take.
Also, I don't think you understand what I mean by "action". I don't mean 'practise spells', which goes along with being studios in his world. I mean jumping into the fray without thought. I mean something present, that gets results fast. Instant action. He's good at DAtD but Harry isn't a patient person on the whole and looking up spells to practise would get boring.
For instance, even thought the TriWizard Tournement was a big deal and he was the youngest, Harry's initiative only stretched so far. I understand that as the person everything relies on, taking more initiative would have been smart, but that's not Harry. I'm not saying his actions were completely intelligent. They weren't thought out and that is the point. It's a character flaw of his that we see consistently which is attributed to his youth.