I'm in the middle of reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and what I read this morning on the bus on the way to work made me think a bit.
The first thing was about showing gratitude. Harry asked Parvati Patil whether she would accompany him to the ball, and she accepted. (I was actually rather surprised that she had had no previous offer, since she didn't seem particularly unpopular.) I rather expected him to thank her afterwards for agreeing to accompany him, rather than making him look around still more, which seemed an uncomfortable task to him.
When he ignored her for most of the dance, I thought that not very nice, but I still would thought he should have had the decency to thank her after the dance was over.
The second thing I thought about was how Cedric Diggory wanted to give Harry a clue about how to find out the secret hidden in his golden egg. He said he did so because Harry had told him about the first Task -- that there would be dragons involved.
I suppose Harry should have graciously accepted this help from someone whom he didn't particularly like, and who probably didn't particularly like him, either. But he respected him for the help he had given him and was willing to return the favour.
I'll probably forget about those thoughts I have before I can apply them to my life, but I thought I'd jot them down here, at least. I'm fairly sure I could stand to be more gracious and thankful at times.
