Even Harry usually has a bit more tact then that. I mean, he can and often is a colossal asshole--Summer Knight is a good example. After causing a war that had just killed a lot of wizards, he shows up to the meeting to discuss what happened...wearing a bathrobe, with bad hair, unshaven, and generally looking like a huge mess, showing his enormous respect for the lives his actions took. Is it any wonder the Council doesn't like him? If he was in the army or something and had just done something like that, the response would likely involve big burly men waiting for him in the parking lot. Like many of the things he's done, it doesn't look good from the outside.

But there were reasons. He was a mess over Susan, he'd had a really shitty day, his cat fucked up his formal robes, he couldn't speak Latin, etc. He still looked like a colossal douche, but at least there was a cause.

Similarly, while Harry's often a dick to...everyone and an irreverent asshole, he's usually not the type to actively try to be a heel to people that are doing their best to protect people, to young girls (or girls in general), and especially not to both.

Him doing so here is a huge flaw with his character and also irksome from the perspective of someone on the outside, because it's undeserved dickishness.

 

Not going to argue that he isn't being an asshole in this fic, but in Summer Knight he had just (as in having been broken out of it that day) gone through a period of obsession/depression to the point where he almost lost his damn apartment. He also still held the impression that the entire Council was out to get him because of one mistake he made as a teenager (in ignorance, even). Remember that of the three Wizards he'd known up to that point two had tried to kill him and the third was the one to save him from execution.

This was pre-Warden Harry, who didn't understand that Morgan is a jaded cop and the Merlin was not personally out to get him. He didn't have any respect for the Council and he especially wasn't going to bend over backwards for them when he was absolutely sure he was in the right in starting the war.

Harry's actions in Summer Knight may have been disrespectful, but they were completely in character for him at that stage of his life.

 

Um, I know. I broke that down myself--I was just saying that from the outside, he must have come off as a huge asshole while inside it wasn't really intentional. Harry can be really thoughtless a lot of the time, such as how he didn't seem to realize the message he was sending then, but the fact remains.

The point was that while Harry can be a huge dick like that, it's not usually as intentional or blatant as in this fic.