“Harry’s childhood affects him enormously, setting the stage for huge swathes of his behaviour throughout the books. It doesn’t start and end with exceptional reflexes and the ability to go for long periods of time on not much food. For example: Sirius Black is the first adult in whom Harry Potter willingly confides before he’s beaten the bad guys and taken care of the issue on his own. This happens in book four of seven. Look, Harry has trust issues: he lets very specific people in and they stay there. End of. Everyone else spends a lot of time bashing their heads against the brick wall that he throws up around those people he loves. But noticeably, all of the people he loves in that way are teenagers like himself; all but Sirius. Never in five books does Harry ever confide in an adult other than Sirius. He accepts guidance from adults when it’s offered to him, but he does not take his troubles to grownups of his own volition. Ever. This character trait drives the entire plot of the first two books - Harry, Ron and Hermione solving mysteries on their own even though they are in a castle stuffed with teachers, among whose number is the man the Wizarding World acknowledges as the greatest wizard alive. They tell all, of course they do. But only when it’s over. Only when they’ve already won. Harry Potter does not trust people who are in a position of power over him. This isn’t a result of Snape, or Umbridge, or Skeeter-induced Ministry ridicule. This is a result of the Dursleys.”
something else is: he doesn’t strive academically. ron has low academic expectations for himself due to feeling like he can only either tie or lose, should he compete with his older siblings. hermione has painfully high expectations for herself because she’s compelled to prove she deserves her place at hogwarts every single semester of her stay.
meanwhile harry grew up being punished for ever doing as well or better than his favored cousin, but at the same time being derided for doing worse. it creates this frustratingly passive incuriosity in harry later on that’s all the more upsetting when you realize both his parents were intelligent, talented, and ambitious, accomplishing things in their preferred fields well ahead of their peer groups.
harry prefers to keep his head down and avoid trouble, attention, and making any kind of serious effort… except for flying and WAR. and even his innate love of flying gets harnessed, immediately, into the violent, clannish proxy-war of interhouse quiddich games. of course he never trusted authority: even the teachers who genuinely meant him well only pushed him deeper into a brutal, unforgiving world with expectations of him that he never asked for.
dumbledore wanted a child soldier, and he damn well did a good job of making one.
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