Why didn't they believe Harry? *Spoiler*

[Fortescue]

From the first time Harry saw Draco in HBP he pointed out to Ron and Hermione that Malfoy was a Death Eater. He even pointed out the reason Malfoy didn't want Madam Malkin to touch his left arm when fitting his robes was because he now had a Dark Mark and was working for Voldemort - we never actually saw the mark, but we know he had the mark or he wouldn't have been able to walk through the spell cast at the base of the Astronomy Tower that only allowed the Death Eaters to pass. The conversation Harry heard on the train under the Invisibility Cloak was passed off by Hermione as Malfoy's bragging for Pansy's benefit that he had a job to do for Voldemort.

Several times throughout the book Harry told them of his suspicions and all they did was roll their eyes or go to Draco's defense. Yet, all the things that Harry said were correct, including Draco being responsible for the necklace that injured Katie Bell, and the fact that Malfoy was up to something big in the Room of Requirements. This is the first time we've been shown by JKR that Harry had a sort of Inner Eye thing going on.

My first question is - Why didn't they believe him, and why did it seem they were making such a big effort to not believe him?

Also, we know that Harry has never trusted Snape, yet Hermione has always gone to Snape's defense whenever Harry made the slightest remark against him, yet in HBP, Harry is given the biggest reason ever to not trust him. (not to get off on a Harry and Snape spec), but does this possibly show that Harry was right all along about Snape in the same way he was right throughout HBP about Draco?

[kashlie]

I found this odd too! In the past, Ron and Hermione have been there for Harry, getting into the adventures with him and helping him out as much as possible.

The awful feeling I have is that they were still told things that Harry wasn't - a point in HBP which I can't recall where, saw Ron and Hermione exchange a look, like the ones in OotP when they knew something Harry didn't.
I wonder if they were instructed by Dumbledore or on behalf of Dumbledore, to let Harry work things out on his own, as a test...his own suspicions coupled with DD's lessons may have prepared him for more than we first thought.

[Tonks]

I think part of them really wanted to believe that such a thing wasn't true. In some little way, they're a bit like Dumbledore - they're willing to trust what he calls and if he puts some trust (however wrong it may seem) into people, Hermione especially is willing to give that person a chance.

As far as Draco is concerned, I think that may have been a mixture of denial and wishing it to not be true. There could have been many reasons that Draco didn't want Madam Malkin to touch his arm or pin up his robes, and they probably thought Harry was just jumping to conclusions because he has always had such a grudge against Draco (not that its an unfair one though).

Again, even though they hate Draco and know his father was a Death Eater, they may have wanted to believe it wasn't possible.. who would think Voldemort would allow a schoolboy to become a Death Eater anyway? .. I probably wouldn't have believed it either.. They're trying to help Harry, yes, but in doing so they don't want him to get into a messy predicament because he acted upon things that he just assumed but weren't true..

[Snuffles]

I dunno about this...
i would have thought it was sort of, well, far-fetched when Harry brought up something like this. it was sort of wacky, wasn't it?
But considering how Harry presented all this with, as much as I can tell, valid proof, it is so weird to see Hermione and Ron not standing up for Harry as before.

But Hermione and Ron.
they're growing up. For the past five years, and probably many more years of lives prior to attending Hogwarts, Ron especially must have heard about all of the great stuffs Harry did when he refelcted off the Avada Kedavra. Then during the last five years, even when they were sticking up for Harry, they must have had their own doubts of whether they were doing the right thing; Harry was famous enough anyway. First five years Harry had become more known and famous in the Wizarding world, while in fact they have done much to help and support Harry but didn't get any recognizations. Maybe they didn't want to see Harry so right and famous again, this time.

I mean, the looks they exchange.. they might be interpreted for.. "well, there's Harry again, with his smart answers for everything going on." not in a real mean way, since they are his friends, but I think there [I]are[/are] some tiny sparks of jealousy in their hearts when they hear people talk about Harry and his deeds.

[Sirius Potter Fan]

this is a very good question! I really doubt that Dulmbledore would have informed Ron and Hermionie behind Harry's back. Dumbledore knew himself, because Snape told him, and he never acted like he didn't know, just that he didn't care, most likely since he knew that Snape was holding Draco off for a period of time. I also think that if that had happened, the two of them would have confided in him later after all was said and done.

I think it was for Ron and Hermionie, as said before, they just couldn't see Voldemort puting such trust in a kid. Of course they didn't know of Narcissa's suspicion that Voldemort only did that as a punishment for Lucious. I certainly don't think that Voldemort expected Draco to succede, and Draco really didn't, he couldn't do it when the time came. So, really, they were right, not in that Draco wasn't up to something, maybe, but that Voldemort would make him a DE and trust him to pull of something like this, I mean. . . he's such a whimp!

[Alz]

I tend to agree - it wasn't so much a question of Harry's credibility - it was more a reflection of Malfoy ...
Everyone seems to have underestimated Draco in how far he would go for retribution and to make himself important and more of a hero than Harry ...
For years he has had to live being second best to Harry - all the school talking about Harry - well you can imagine who is centre of attentions now at Hogwarts ...
I think the same can be said of the adults, they would never think that Voldemort would 'mark' a child and have him as a spy at Hogwarts ... it just seems so incredible just saying it ...
Call it complacency or just pure denial that Draco could ever be what he turned out to be - I think this just highlights how easily people are mislead ;)

[Fortescue]

I just found it strange that Ron and Hermione couldn't add 2 + 2 the way Harry did - even when McGonagall told them Draco had detention for not doing his homework, and he even got someone else to play seeker in the Quidditch match against Gryffindor. Considering his attempts to make himself seem more important than Harry since day one, the obvious things that Harry noticed seemed to simply slip by Ron and Hermione.

Even after they realized that Malfoy really was up to something odd in the Room of Requirements, and Harry figured out they were using Polyjuice Potion to transform Crabbe and Goyle into girls to use as lookouts - they still didn't believe Harry. Seems a little over the top for JKR to make them look, well, rather stupid. Possibly she was showing that Ron and Hermione were too involved in their own personal battle of love - but it still doesn't seem possible that they would be so blind.

[Boing]

I thought this was simply because it seemed a pretty farfetched idea. And also because every year there has been this sort of conspiracy going on and they were probably thinking "c'mon, give it a rest already. Not everything is all cloak and dagger." But, they were proven wrong.

I think they just didn't believe him at first because it was so farfetched and then, as he tried to weave the story more and more, they just turned the other way because they hadn't believed him in the beginning about why Malfoy was in Borgin and Burkes. So then they didn't follow along when he came up with his ideas about Malfoy later in the year.

When McGonagall told them that Malfoy had been in school, I think their minds were so set on Harry not being right about Malfoy and that he had just gone too far, that they didn't look to the other side to think, "well, why did he have detention? Why isn't he doing his homework?" It was more along the lines of, "See? It couldn't have been Malfoy so stop all this nonsense."

So, it started off with him making a fantastic allegation, then a teacher knocking down one of his theories, and from then on, they just tolerated him and didn't really give the situation much thought after he finished with his theories.

[Fortescue]

Another thing that bothered me was the fact that Harry didn't know what an Unbreakable Vow was, yet when he told Ron who did know, it was never brought up again.


A Very Frosty Christmas - HBP, pg 325 US
"Yes, Snape was offering to help him!" said Harry. "He said he'd promised Malfoy's mother to protect him, that he'd made an Unbreakable Oath or something -"
"An Unbreakable Vow?" said Ron, looking stunned. "Nah, he can't have .... Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure," said Harry. "Why, what does it mean?"
"Well, you can't break an Unbreakable Vow..."
"I'd worked that much out for myself, funnily enough. What happens if you break it, then?"
"You die,"


Even when Ron seemed to believe this, it was never mentioned again - not between Ron and Harry or Ron and his parents. Even Harry didn't tell Mr. Weasley, which would have surly sent up some type of warning to Mr. Weasley, who just brushed off Harry's suspicions as his not understanding what all Snape and Dumbledore were up to, and that Dumbledore trusts Snape, and that should be good enough for Harry.

To our knowledge, Harry didn't mention the Unbreakable Vow, and I would think if he had told Mr. Weasley, that would have definitely sent up some red flags for Mr. Weasley and Lupin as they would know that making that vow wasn't something you'd do lightly.

[Sirius Potter Fan]

Fort, I think sadly that that is the biggest flaw in our hero here. He keeps alot of things to his own council. He rarely takes his questions to those (elders) best equiped to help. I would say the biggest majority of the time, if he actualy tells someone of something, that it is Ron and Hermionie he tells, and when they tell him to tell someone else, he doesn't. But here they just seem to brush him off. I'm still not convinced though that Dumbledore told them to however. If he did, it wasn't that Harry had a lesson to learn, but that Dumbledore knew how the situation with Draco and Snape and himself had to work out, and didn't want the whole school in an uproar beforhand.

[Fortescue]

I don't believe that Ron and Hermione had any subversive contact with Dumbledore either. Dumbledore was giving Harry all the information he had the time left to give - I don't think he'd go behind Harry's back to his two best friends and scheme anything with them.

I found another passage from the book while re-reading HBP that I thought was quite "inner eyeish" of Harry:


A Sluggish Memory - HBP, pg 353
"No, no, not History of Magic - Malfoy threatened Borgin with him!" said Hermione. "Back in Knockturn Alley, don't you remember? He told Borgin that Greyback was an old family friend and that he'd be checking up on Borgin's progress?"
Harry gaped at her, "I forgot! But this proves Malfoy's a Death Eater, how else could he be in contact with Greyback and telling him what to do?"
"It is pretty suspicious," breathed Hermione. "Unless..."
"Oh, come on," said Harry in exasperation, "you can't get around this one!"
"Well...there is the possibility it was an empty threat."
"You're unbelievable, you are," said Harry, shaking his head. "We'll see who's right... You'll be eating your words, Hermione,"


Harry pretty much predicted the fact that they would see he was right about everything, which they all did in the end - including Lupin and Mr. Weasley who brushed off Harry's suspicions with the slightest of regard.

[Tonks]

I don't really think that he was predicting that he was right .. more likely that he was sure he was right and was just being adamant and sticking to his own beliefs and not letting them change his mind..

Going back a few posts - if Harry did run around telling people his suspicions, would anyone really believe him? They'd probably tell him not to worry, that Dumbledore would take care of it, that they were sure he'd heard wrong - all because they didn't want to believe it was true. Harry decides to put his trust in the people he thinks will believe him - obviously Ron and Hermione, and Dumbledore.. but when even they don't believe him, I doubt he wants to go running around and telling other people who probably won't believe him either..

[Boing]

Agreed. It was a huge step for Harry in terms of his development for him to even go to Dumbledore or McGonagall or even Arthur this time around. In the previous books, he hasn't bothered the teachers or any other authority figure with his suspicions or when his scar hurt, etc. He has tried to hide it because he didn't want to seem odd/like he was looking for attention. Or just didn't think it was important enough to bother them.

So when he finally does go and tell some people, all of those people pretty much shoot down his theories . . . kind of rough. McGonagall tells them that Draco was in detention; Arthur doesn't find anything at the Malfoys' house; Dumbledore tells him to focus on other things . . . not exactly encouraging.

[Alz]

Interesting in this was how Dumbledore took the news Harry told him just after Christmas - the fact Dumbledore was either a great liar in how he responded to Harry or indeed he was even beginning to wonder about Snape.

It was noted that Dumbledore became almost agitated when Harry asked him if he still trusted Snape ... I think that was well remarked upon.

I think there could be credance to the speculation more 'discussions' were taking place behind Harry's back - because most of what he was saying was very credible yet was met with contempt by the people he trusted.
Hermione would be one I would point towards - when Harry spoke to her about Greyback - a pretty sure sign that Draco was indeed talking to DE's - she tried to shrug him off ...
That was a compelling piece of evidence Harry presented her with - yet she just seemed to let it wash over her.