In book 5, Harry has developed the ability to see Threstrals, due to him seeing the death of Cedric Digory at the end of book 4 but shouldn’t he be able to see them already as he saw his parents die?
*Troll Brain Syndrom
He was present when they died, but it’s never said that he actually watched it happened. Besides, seeing death in infancy may not count, since he couldn’t appreciate what happened.
I’ve been rereading Order of the Phoenix for the past two weeks or so, and I had the same thought. I basically came to the same conclusion as Menocchio. Either Harry never actually saw his parents’ deaths, or he was too young to understand what was happening.
I have questions about the other books, though. In Goblet of Fire, when wizards and witches are running from the Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup, Ron and Hermione light up their wands. I know that’s a very minor spell, but why wasn’t that a violation of the Underage Use of Magic law? Is it because they were with other members of the wizarding community, or maybe because it was a dangerous situation?
The UAUOM law is null in dangerous situations (although they can still call you up for it, it wont hold up at a hearing)
IIRC, it’s not seeing death that allows one to see thestrals, it’s the experience of death (if that makes any sense). Even in cases like Harry’s, it takes a while for the event to sink in, which is why he couldn’t see them at the end of book 4.
Im another one who reread Order of the Phoenix just before Prisoner of Azkaban came out and had the same thought, I came up with the same conlusion as everyone else in this thread in that he was too young or didnt realise what had happened.
But on reading this thread I just thought of something else, if it is to do with seeing death, maybe Harry never saw death, even as a child. The Books tell us James went to fight Voldemort off, and told Lily to take Harry.
As for Lily, if I remember rightly, it was never said that she died in the same room as Harry (only the movie told this). Maybe she put him somewhere and then went to met Voldemort when she realised that James wasnt.
Or maybe Im just thinking about this way too much!
He didn’t see his parents die. He SHOULD have seen the thestrals in Book 4 (he had at least a week for Cedric’s death to “sink in”) but Rowling sort of fudged it claiming that you need time for it to “sink in.”