PDWDWTSAFAB

[foxmoth at qnet.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25284

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., blpurdom at y... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., foxmoth at q... wrote:
> >  > --- - In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> > > > > >  Plot Devices We Don't Want to See Again for A Bit
> [snip]
> > and I'll add, The villains have everything they need to make their 
> > attack, but inexplicably wait till the end of term. PS/SS and CoS 
> > are the worst offenders, but GoF comes close.
> > 
> This doesn't add up for me.  It probably took Quirrell quite some 
> time how to work out ways of overcoming all of the obstacles to the 
> Stone: Fluffy, Devil's snare, etc.  He didn't wait till the end of 
> term to "attack."
> 
 Quirrel learned how to get past Fluffy when he traded the dragon's egg 
to Hagrid, sometime between the end of Easter holidays and May 8th when 
Norbert hatched. He could have gone after the Stone anytime after that.

> In CoS, it took Ginny writing in the diary for months before Tom 
> Riddle's memory became strong enough to emerge from the book.  Her 
> writing in it produced a cumulative effect.
	Once again, Ginny recovers the diary on May 7. She's completely in 
Riddle's power, because there's another attack on May 8. But Riddle 
doesn't bring her to the Chamber until May 29.
	(Dates from the Harry Potter Lexicon, except May 7, mine)
> 
> And I recently opined that Barty Crouch, Jr. could very well have 
> needed all year to research the perfect Portkey, so that explains 
> that timing.
> 
	The point is, *we* keep having to invent explanations. There is no 
logical reason *in the text* for  the bad guys to make their climactic 
attack as the term ends. It's a barenaked plot device. 
	 In Prisoner of Azkaban, at least we don't have Sirius getting his 
paws on Pettigrew in early May  but waiting until June to do something 
about it. <g>
	BTW, I think it's perfectly logical that Sirius didn't trust 
anyone else to go after Pettigrew, considering what he told the kids in 
GoF about not knowing whom to trust where Voldemort was concerned. He 
might have been afraid that Lupin and Pettigrew were *both* spies.
	
Pippin