Silly question

[Miles]

Geoff Bannister wrote:
>> Moving on, if you read the quote in context, it makes perfect sense
>> in the present tense (no pun intended):
>> "Most celebrated of these half-magical dwelling places i...
>
> <Snip>
>
>> (DH "Godric's Hollow" p.261 UK edition)
>
> md:
>> Writing 101, you can't switch tense.
>>
>> Okay, 99.9% of the time you can't. If you do, it's got to be separate
>> chapters.
>
> Geoff:
> So why do characters in books written in the past tense always speak
> in the present tense?
>
> Hermione is quoting from Bathilda Bagshot's book "A History of Magic":

Miles:
I agree with Geoff. While it is true that an author should not switch 
between tenses (although for artistic reasons they might break this rule, as 
an author is allowed to break nearly every rule if it has a purpose), in 
this case there is no breaking of the rule.
While The Narrator always uses past tense, the author of the book on 
Bathilda does not. So it's another voice, another person "talking", 
therefore switching between past and present is absolutely ok with any rules 
for writing.

Miles, who by the way likes authors who play with language rules rather then 
obeying them