Even if the other humanoid races are essentially human, it seems like Harry should be talking to them more. Getting different viewpoints and information could be incredibly helpful. If the differences are primarily cultural, well, there can be an awful lot of variation between cultures. Not to mention the differences in magical ability and techniques.
Of course, in canon, Harry didn’t catch on to this until the fourth year or so.
I agree that it would be a useful exercise, but given constraints of time as well as opportunity cost, Harry may simply be prioritizing other pursuits.
I wasn’t thinking particularly about recent events. If Harry wanted to unravel the secrets of magic, he should have been interviewing goblins and house elves since he learned they existed. Hagrid would have been another good lead, as he could potentially be networked to allow introductions to centaurs, giants, etc.
Asking Draco about Dumbledore has yielded some really interesting new hypotheses. More viewpoints = more data!
People seem to constant forget—Hagrid’s status as a half-giant is secret. Everyone had a different theory as to why he’s that big, but nobody thought it could be because he has giant blood, because then obviously he wouldn’t be employed in civilized society.
What Harry doesn’t know that canon Harry figured out quickly is that Hagrid knows a lot about magical creatures. (He eventually became care for magical creatures teacher, after all.) He ventures into the forbidden forest, tends the nonmagical part of the Hogwarts gardens (which get attacked by magical creatures on occasion), etc. And if Harry did more digging into the Chamber of Secrets incident, he might learn about Aragog.
Knowing most of this, though, requires Harry to actually interact with Hagrid more than is strictly necessary, which doesn’t seem to interest him.
Even if the other humanoid races are essentially human, it seems like Harry should be talking to them more. Getting different viewpoints and information could be incredibly helpful. If the differences are primarily cultural, well, there can be an awful lot of variation between cultures. Not to mention the differences in magical ability and techniques.
Of course, in canon, Harry didn’t catch on to this until the fourth year or so.
I agree that it would be a useful exercise, but given constraints of time as well as opportunity cost, Harry may simply be prioritizing other pursuits.
I wasn’t thinking particularly about recent events. If Harry wanted to unravel the secrets of magic, he should have been interviewing goblins and house elves since he learned they existed. Hagrid would have been another good lead, as he could potentially be networked to allow introductions to centaurs, giants, etc.
Asking Draco about Dumbledore has yielded some really interesting new hypotheses. More viewpoints = more data!
People seem to constant forget—Hagrid’s status as a half-giant is secret. Everyone had a different theory as to why he’s that big, but nobody thought it could be because he has giant blood, because then obviously he wouldn’t be employed in civilized society.
I agree otherwise, however.
What Harry doesn’t know that canon Harry figured out quickly is that Hagrid knows a lot about magical creatures. (He eventually became care for magical creatures teacher, after all.) He ventures into the forbidden forest, tends the nonmagical part of the Hogwarts gardens (which get attacked by magical creatures on occasion), etc. And if Harry did more digging into the Chamber of Secrets incident, he might learn about Aragog.
Knowing most of this, though, requires Harry to actually interact with Hagrid more than is strictly necessary, which doesn’t seem to interest him.
Either you are making a pun about the ability to identify said creatures by smell or you mean “knows”.
Ehehehehe, that was a mistake on my part, thanks! Fixed now.
Not to mention infeasible, what with his nigh imprisonment.