All Was Well

Imagine him seeing Percy asleep with a book on his lap, and being baffled that a kid might feel comfortable enough in his own home to be so vulnerable in the living room. 

Imagine Molly coming up to the attic to say goodnight to Ron and Harry, and Harry glancing at Ron when he hears her footsteps, trying to figure out what they had done wrong that day.

Imagine him asking George who does all the house chores, and thinking it’s a joke when George answers, “we all do.” 

Imagine Ginny pestering Arthur with questions over the Daily Prophet, and Harry trying to shoot her warning looks to stop it! but then Mr. Weasley looks up and patiently answers every single one. 

Imagine Bill popping in for a visit one evening and Harry being floored when Bill stops to chat with him. 

Imagine Fred chasing after Harry in the yard, playfighting, but Harry actually begins to run for real fear of being hurt. 

Imagine Molly burning something on the stove my accident and tossing it, imagine Harry mentioning to Ron, offhandedly, “she could’ve given that one to me, it’s what I eat at home when I mess up dinner” and not knowing why Ron is horrified.

Harry Potter and Ron Weasley

✖ Ginevra ✖

Luna lent her the earrings (read into that what you will), and the choker is inspired by @blvnk-art, who made me love Ginny far more than I ever thought I could.

anyways hermione was trying to find out who wrote it and she was like “okay but.. why do we keep referring to the author as a ‘him’ like… it could be a girl…” and everybody was all “shut up hermione its half-blood PRINCE” anyways eventually after some digging she found reference to a witch called “eileen prince” who used to go to hogwarts and she was like “aha so it COULD be a woman!” and again everybody just brushed her off

eventually after harry found out it was snape he was like HOLY FUCK and later when talking to hermione about it she said that actually while she was still wrong she made the best guess - after doing a bit more digging, she found out that “Eileen Prince” was actually snape’s mother, and he used the name “The Half-Blood Prince” to refer specifically to his wizarding heritage (because his father was a muggle)

- Sirius never got to know the truth about his brother

- James and Lily both lost their parents before they were 20

- James died thinking that Lily and Harry will survive

- Sirius found James’ dead body when he entered the Potter’s house

- Sirius could have defeated Peter if he wasn’t already half insane because of what he just saw

- Sirius relived this moment every time the Dementores came to close to him

- Remus went to the funeral alone

- Remus probably begged Dumbledore to give Harry to him

- Harry grew up thinking that no one loved him

- Remus was alone every fullmoon for the next twelve years

- Sirius could have escaped from Askaban earlier, but stayed because he blamed himself for what happened

- Peter was the only of the marauders to be there on Harry’s first day of school

- Peter spent more time with Harry than the other marauders

- Remus most likely heared about everything that happened between Harry and Quirrell and in the chamber of secrets and was scared to death

- Dumbledore most likely hired Remus after Sirius escaped

- Sirius was not dead when he felt through the veil

- Remus died thinking that his wife and baby were safe

he does things by himself and the two people he actually trusts, bc he’s learned that authority figures are no help and will only make things worse. he takes situations at face value bc he’s never seen other options in his life, he’s never HAD other options in his life. speaking very personally, that was a serious marker of abuse that i saw in myself - i never thought abt escape, or what i could do to improve my situation, bc i didn’t even see that as an option. the options were survive or don’t, deal w it or don’t, acclimate or implode.

maybe he wasn’t thinking abt what DUMBLEDORE would do, what anyone at hogwarts would do. maybe he was acting off what he knew the dursleys (his main authority figures) would do. the dursleys would let the girl drown. and harry was there, and harry could do something, and so harry did. he took personal responsibility for fleur’s sister’s safety bc all his life he’s learned that authority figures cannot be trusted to do so.

Incidentally this is even more clear in the first and second books, to me. Because Harry DID go to adults and say someone’s trying to steal the stone, and what did the adults do? Did they say, yes, we know, we’re taking precautions, real, good protective measures? Noooo. Did they say, thank you, we’ll look into it, even? Noooo. They said, don’t be silly, it’s not your concern, nothing to see here, little boy, run along and do your schoolwork.

And they said this to a boy whose entire life experience has never involved an adult that can be depended on. And they lied, lied about their own knowledge, said “that’s silly” when they know “that’s true.” And they were too convincing: since he as well knew the truth, what they ended up convincing him was that they didn’t know. And it fit right in with his expectations. Adults, whether actively malicious (the Dursleys, Snape) or well-meaning but oblivious (Mrs. Figg, Harry’s primary-school teachers, the other Hogwarts teachers), can’t be depended on. If anything’s got to be done, Harry and his friends have got to do it himself.

Second book, same thing—they’re headed for the teacher’s lounge to tell the teachers it’s a basilisk, and overhear the teachers saying that Ginny Weasley’s been taken by the monster, and they need to close Hogwarts, and their only plan to rescue Ginny is to send Gilderoy Lockhart—knowing full well he’s a fraud, a coward, and no match for a Cornish pixie, let alone a basilisk. Once again, the adults are flat-out useless and if anyone is going to save Ginny, it’s gotta be Harry and Ron. 

Notably, this is after another ball-drop on the part of the adults: when Harry’s been framed for underage magic and locked up in his room and starved by people who have every intention of keeping him out of Hogwarts forever, it’s other kids, Ron, Fred, and George, who go rescue him, and when the adults find out, one of them punishes and scolds and the other is only interested in how his car worked.

In book three, we meet a couple of adults that are competent, helpful, and willing to listen—Sirius and Remus—and the other adults come in and the end result is, one’s fired and the other has to go on the run lest he have his soul sucked out by dementors. Dumbledore does listen and give them the necessary hints, but it’s Harry, and Hermione this time, who have to do the work.

 – OotP

“he does things by himself and the two people he actually trusts… it’s not completely unhealthy; it’s even very useful and responsible on occasion.” - @gaelissfelin

…this.  Harry sees people as: a. him and people he trusts, b. people to be evaded, and c. people in need of help.  When he gets backed into a corner (Voldemort inside his head, heading down the trapdoor alone, off to the DoM alone, into the Forest alone), the circle of people he trusts shrinks down from the DA/OotP, to the Trio, to just himself.  Harry never wants to be a hero or gets off on it, he’s just a person who’s suffered from the bystander effect and doesn’t want to be a bystander himself.