csi_lost_fan33 yea i noticed that too, like i was always confused with the subject of the thestrals, but didn't harry see his parents die? so couldn't he of seen them all the time? or did he even see his parents die? im confused. but yeh your right, harry should of seen them at then end of book 4. Ummm....not sure about reaching jkr.

krazykray i think she hadn't come up with the idea yet. So its just a small fault in the books.

Spotty_Vision21 Well, hun, just so you know, this would have been better in the forum section. But, don't complain. With that massive of a plot line, containing so many tiny interlocking details, she was bound to make a mistake.

tessajanuary I noticed this too, funnyshawna. I think it was just a mistake on JKR's part. No one's perfect, even though she did dream up the entire HP universe :D

jamiejean she was asked this in an interview. it's because Harry hadn't accepted the death yet, and was still in shock over it. it hadn't really set in yet.

nina4921 Interesting, jamiejean. But then what about seeing his parents die? Do you have to remember the deaths as well as seeing them? :-S

sophieDP NICEEEEEEEE OWNED JK ROWLING.

sophieDP and surely he'd already seen his parents die...

sheen24 yea... shouldn't Harry have been able to see the thestrals the whole time since he saw his parents die?

funnyshawna yeah i know jkr had a lot on her mind, but still just something i noticed. and im not sure if harry actually saw his parents die...

Spotty_Vision21 He was to young to comprehend it, I think.

funnyshawna yeah you're probably right, maybe u have to remember seeing someone die to see thestrals

sneha ya tat was right... but harry had also almost seen his mother die so y not on his 1st day at hogwarts itself????????????? ummmmmmmmmm these r qqqqqqqqqq tat makes us ponder

ay3 just typos. ive seen movies wen right after a person eats, they spit gum out... mistakes

funnyshawna yeah.

swimswamswum It's because it hadn't really sunk. Not sure how to say this...

Sappp Read this: Q:'In the fifth book, Harry can see the Thestrals. Can you?' Answer by JK: 'Yes, I can, definitely. That is a really good question, because it enables me to clear up a point. The letters that I’ve had about the Thestrals! Everyone has said to me that Harry saw people die before could see the Thestrals. Just to clear this up once and for all, this was not a mistake. I would be the first to say that I have made mistakes in the books, but this was not a mistake. I really thought this one through. Harry did not see his parents die. He was one year old and in a cot at the time. Although you never see that scene, I wrote it and then cut it. He didn’t see it; he was too young to appreciate it. When you find out about the Thestrals, you find that you can see them only when you really understand death in a broader sense, when you really know what it means. Someone said that Harry saw Quirrell die, but that is not true. He was unconscious when Quirrell died, in Philosopher’s Stone. He did not know until he came around that Quirrell had died when Voldemort left his body. Then you have Cedric. With Cedric, fair point. Harry had just seen Cedric die when he got back into the carriages to go back to Hogsmeade station. I thought about that at the end of Goblet, because I have known from the word go what was drawing the carriages. From Chamber of Secrets, in which there are carriages drawn by invisible things, I have known what was there. I decided that it would be an odd thing to do right at the end of a book. Anyone who has suffered a bereavement knows that there is the immediate shock but that it takes a little while to appreciate fully that you will never see that person again. Until that had happened, I did not think that Harry could see the Thestrals. That means that when he goes back, he saw these spooky things. It set the tone for Phoenix, which is a much darker book.'

swaggycat14 I personally think it is because he didn't see Cedric die. He saw the green blast of light emitted from Voldemort's wand, and only gazed over to see Cedric lying on the ground, presumably dead. He didn't see the actual act occur, and as it became more real, as it did in the Order of the Phoenix, suddenly, things made sense, and he started remembering his parents deaths as well, and could view the Thestrals. Wow, they actually made a spell check for Thestrals, it's a good day for Potterheads- hm?

swaggycat14 Hope it helped, Shawna!