reenka

I don't know, have Hermione & McGonnagal really tried to talk reasonably to him about Slytherins or any really challenging things? Hermione seems more interested in the house-elf liberation movement. But... I do think Harry listens to her-- she's practically the only person he listened to in OoTP, and McGonnagal doesn't precisely have long heart-to-hearts with Harry-- that's Dumbledore's job, and his concerns seem to be way above what Harry's inter-student relationships are.

I don't think Harry takes long to trust -or- distrust, and it's not just Sirius. It's those gut reactions again. You keep trying to judge him by how reasonably he thinks, where I don't think he really -thinks-, reasonably or not. That's not his 'job', so to speak-- that's what Hermione's for, ahahah. Harry's supposed to be a 'normal boy', I think, and normal boys don't precisely ponder things much.

I can see how he'd seem 'too good to be true' (ie, 'Super Sue'), but um... he has plenty of faults. It's just-- I think some qualities of his are a matter of personal taste, whether you're willing to look past them or not, but that's how it is with every person or character. He's not reasonable, but so are a lot of people. In fact, very few people (even thinking ones) are truly -reasonable- in the world. Everyone's deluded, man. Even me. Shocking, I know.

Believing oneself to be superior without realizing it is basically what they call 'having a big ego'-- or, to put it another way, being selfish. This is only a negative thing if your actions are exploitative-- that is, you think not only that you're -better- but that other people are -worse- because they're not -you-. The people Harry doesn't 'approve' of are often quite arbitrary-- he doesn't have a 'policy'-- I mean, he was like 'not Slytherin' because Slytherins became associated with that-mean-aggravating-boy-who's-so-full-of-himself. He wasn't like 'Slytherins are beneath me'. He was like, 'ack, must get away!!'
I agree he's been selfish & self-pitying, but that's just him being a normal boy-- so I don't view it as a flaw. I view it as a part of being human.

He -does- have a quick temper, so he's easily provoked. However, Draco & Snape & even Zacharias (though I'm not sure) -were- trying to provoke him, so they just succeeded. A temper isn't something I see as an intrinsic flaw, only as a potentially negative quality-- its negativity or positivity seems defined by circumstance.

I think Snape and Draco and Hermione are more arrogant because they consciously think they know better than everyone else. Harry doesn't-- he just doesn't care what anyone else thinks; it doesn't matter if they're right or not, they're wrong 'cause he says so. It's a simpler and less hypocritical way to be :D

Yeah, Draco doesn't think either. Harry thinks more than Draco, which admittedly isn't saying much ('cause we don't see -Draco- changing his mind about -anything-, but clearly it's hard to tell-- still, Draco's brainwashed by his father and Harry's not really brainwashed by anyone, 100%, anyway).

I just don't judge people very harshly if I understand where they're coming from emotionally. With Harry, that's clear, whereas with Draco, you have to work at it & interpret canon actively if you were to figure it out. And anyway, I'm lazy :>