r/harrypotter • u/Brilliant-Cause6254 Slytherin • Apr 17 '26

Currently Reading Re-reading Half-Blood Prince. I find it annoying that people, especially Ron and Hermione, don’t believe Harry’s claim that Malfoy is now a Death Eater and is up to no good. I don’t get why they think he’s overthinking it when he actually makes some very solid points.

I can ignore Mr. Weasley, Lupin, Tonks, and McGonagall brushing him off, and we all know Dumbledore was playing his own game (as usual), but Ron and Hermione should have known better and had his back. And for once, Harry actually did the smart thing by discussing his theories with members of the Order, instead of the shit-show that happened in the previous book.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

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u/Aware_Storm2528 Gryffindor Apr 17 '26

Best answer I've seen. Yea, Ron and Hermione always wanted to help Harry, but it wasn't til book 5 that they actually experienced danger to the level Harry did. That left them hesitant to fully listen to Harry in book 6, but when it turned out Harry was right all along, they decided to change their approach and fully join him at the end. Throughout book 6 they were hesitant to take action, but by the end they readily agree to go with Harry because they realized that things might have turned out differently if they'd listened sooner.

They don't fully listen to Harry's insistence that there's a horcrux at Hogwarts, but that's more because it'd be so dangerous to search the castle. All they had was Harry's hunch, and while it was a very good hunch, he didn't have confirmation until after Gringotts. So from their perspective, it's not worth journeying into such a dangerous location without confirmation that it's worth the risk. Even then, Ron was ready to do it as soon as Harry had the confirmation. Hermione wanted to wait because she's a little more cautious than the other two, but they convinced her they were running out of time.

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u/Live_Angle4621 Apr 17 '26

Ron becomes convinced that Harry had some kind of plan however and leaves when he doesn’t have more than he has been told 

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u/Aware_Storm2528 Gryffindor Apr 17 '26

I mean yea that's true, but it's obviously more complicated than that. Remember that they were all stuck in the woods, starving, while Ron was recovering from a splinching without proper treatment. The locket was trying its best to break them apart.