Lesson Learned

[dr_c]

Presumably somebody has pointed this out somewhere before; but this week I noticed an amusing apparent example of "Lessons Harry Learned Between OotP and HBP":

"And it might have been a good idea to mention how ugly you think I am, too," Hermione added as an afterthought.

"But I don't think you're ugly," said Harry, bemused.

(OotP, ch. 26)

"

Comments

[sunsethill]

What a nice chuckle for the day. Thanks for posting that.

[zsenya]

LoL! Never picked up on that before! THIS is one of the main reasons I love these books... Thanks, Dr. C.

[peachespig]

That's delightful. Good catch!

The sad thing is the first sequence has been argued over so much that it becomes hard to see it and make connections with it like any other scene.

[dr_c]

The sad thing is the first sequence has been argued over so much that it becomes hard to see it and make connections with it like any other scene.

Yeah. That's one reason why I usually try to avoid debates once the opposing positions become crystallized-- it makes it hard to take passages for what they are, rather than just for how they contribute to our side of the debate.

[sannalim]

sal;djf ;asljf dsa

I picked that up on my first read-through, and it gave me a giggle. Go Harry!

[dr_c]

I picked that up on my first read-through, and it gave me a giggle. Go Harry!

You did? Nicely done-- congratulations. :-)

The one I did pick up on first reading-- not as a literary connection like that one, but just a similar example of Harry wising up-- was in chapter 7:

On the landing he bumped into Ginny, who was returning to her room carrying a pile of freshly laundered clothes.

"I wouldn't go in the kitchen just now," she warned him. "There's a lot of Phlegm around."

"I'll be careful not to slip in it." Harry smiled.On first reading that, I scribbled, "'Not slip'-- nicely done." On one hand, he shows that he understands how Fleur is being annoying, and that he isn't blown away by her (the way a certain best friend of his sometimes is). But he keeps it light-hearted; he's seen Fleur's capacity for gratefulness and for devotedness to her family (after the Gabrielle "rescue" in GoF), and he doesn't get dragged down into the harsh anti-Fleur bitterness that the girls (and, more subtly, Molly) are dealing with

[durayan]

"...when he was dealing with the right girl (Ginny), he could almost instinctively do the right thing-- a reversal of Book 5, when he was dealing with the wrong girl (Cho), and was almost instinctively doing the wrong thing at every turn."

Isn't this the whole point of adolescence? Learning such things? Nice to see you Dr. C---been a while.