In the beginning of The Kite Runner, Amir and Hassan are walking to see a movie. A group of soldiers, seeing Hassan (who is a member of the lower-class Hazara), begin to mock him and his mother, who left his father when he was a baby. After they insult her with obscenities and gestures, Amir comforts Hassan:
Later, in the dark, after the movie had started, I heard Hassan next to me, croaking. Tears were sliding down his cheeks. I reached across my seat, slung my arm around him, pulled him close. He rested his head on my shoulder. "He took you for someone else," I whispered.
(Hosseini, The Kite Runner, Google Books)
This comes before Amir's betrayal of their friendship, and long before Amir discovers that Hassan is actually his half-brother. With his words, Amir shows that he was capable of love for family above class structure and popularity, but as an emotional and selfish child, Amir proves unable to sacrifice his own safety to help Hassan when he needed it the most.
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