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In the Order of the Phoenix, Harry and the others clean Sirius' house to make it more livable. During that they come across a heavy locket that no one could open. In the Half Blood Prince, Dumbledore shows Harry several memories in which they see the locket many times.

In the ending however, when they come to know about the Horcruxes and that the locket might be one of them, why doesn't Harry remember that locket?

He is shown to have a good memory throughout the books. For example, in the potions class in the 6th book he remembers that Snape told the class about the Bezoar from the 1st book.

If Harry had remembered about the locket being in Sirius' house, they wouldn't have gone on that pointless quest.

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  • He's remembered the bezoar because Snape was a good teacher.
    – b_jonas
    Mar 2, 2015 at 11:19
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    Are you referring to Harry giving Ron a bezoar if you say that he remembers Snape telling about it? Because in HPB there's a lesson with Slughorn where they have to produce an antidote, but Harry takes a bezoar out of the the cabinet after reading it in his HPB potion's copy. That was, I believe, prior to the attack. But don't know if he remembers that without the mentioning in the book.
    – Don_Biglia
    Mar 2, 2015 at 13:25
  • No I was referring to the lesson with Slughorn when they are told to create an antidote.
    – nitinvertigo
    Mar 2, 2015 at 13:45
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    Didn't the Half-Blood Prince's book mention the bezoar?
    – mikeazo
    Mar 2, 2015 at 14:11
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    "Just shove a Bezoar down their throats"
    – DavidS
    Mar 2, 2015 at 15:44

2 Answers 2

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Harry remembers Snape telling him about the Bezoar for a very specific reason - the man was humiliating and abusing him 10 seconds into his first ever potions lesson (also, I believe it's mentioned in Potions class at some other point, so it may be a normal ingredient).

For what reason would Harry remember the locket? He had no idea about Horcruxes, and the locket is just one of many, many trinkets they sorted through while cleaning the Black's house. I think it's perfectly analogous to the readers situation - how many of us, on our first read through, made the locket connection? Very few, if any.

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  • This seems satisfactory. Thanks
    – nitinvertigo
    Mar 2, 2015 at 11:35
  • You are right, the bezoar is used in some potions prior to the HBP.
    – Alfredo Hernández
    Mar 2, 2015 at 12:55
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    He’d used the bezoar in Potions class as a clever trick for finding an antidote to an unknown poison, to tremendous frustration of everybody else. Slughorn put the bezoar in his suitcase, which is why Harry both remembered it and knew that one was at hand.
    – alexwlchan
    Mar 2, 2015 at 15:39
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Harry had retrieved the fake locket under grave circumstances. His headmaster, his mentor and a powerful wizard like Dumbledore had died right in front of him. This made it impossible for him to connect the fake locket with the real locket he had sen at the Grimmauld Place. It is also possible that Harry never really saw the real locket properly when he was at Grimmauld Place. Considering the locket could not be opened by anyone in the house, it unlikely that under-age wizards (Harry, Hermione and Weasley siblings) would have even been interested in it enough to try unlock it without the use of magic.The locket, at that time, might have been handled only by the adults.

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