RL's flaws - Conjuring - Char. Dialogue - SS on Potters - Silver Hand - RL's Pat

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 28856

Catching up on a few days' posts . . .

Cindy asked, Lupin fan to Lupin fan:

>4.  Parts of the Shrieking Shack scene make me wonder, also.  Lupin is 
>holding Peter, and Lupin and Black together transform Peter back into a 
>man. Do they do it this way because Lupin isn't powerful
enough to do it himself?   Or could there just be some magical reason
like it takes the power of two wizards to overcome Peter's power
directed toward maintaining his rat form?

I think it's a much more emotional reason, the same reason that when they're 
about to kill him, they're going to do it together:  he is their best friend 
and betrayer.  There's a certain ritual feel to his unmasking and it's a 
very solemn moment, one that the remaining friends want to share.  Why would 
Lupin alone get to avenge Lily and James and

The same with the manacles, though it's much less intense.  Sirius is just 
participating.

I do wonder about the "I'm not an expert at fighting Dementors, quite the 
contrary," though I think JayKay probably hit it on the head (i.e. it's RL 
being self-effacing).

I have a different interpretation than JayKay's of why 
Fudge/Hagrid/Rosmerta/McGonagall/Flitwick don't include Lupin in their 
reminiscing:  he's a current faculty member and respect seems to require 
silence.  They all know perfectly well as they are speaking that Lupin was 
part of that circle also.  It's an opportunity for very juicy gossip ("so, 
pretty weird to have one of that crowd back as a colleague, eh?") but I can 
also see it remaining an unspoken fact known by all present, out of a 
combination of respect and a desire not to be gossipy about someone who's so 
close to home.

BTW, can we please declare a moratorium on Lupin talk while I try to finish 
this #@*%& FAQ?!  <g>  Seriously, though, Cindy, you've just spiced up the 
"character of" section quite a bit.

Cindy again, re: conjuring objects ex nihilo:

>Anyway, I was wondering what the limits of this might be.

Check out Caius Marcius's excellent essay "The Limits of Magic" on the 
Lexicon:  http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon.  Your suggestion that 
objects made for others may be more likely to endure is an interesting 
partner to CMC's capitalism theory--together they make "capitalism with a 
human face" <g>.  Of course, not all such objects are given out of 
generosity; Voldemort's gift to Wormtail is likely to carry a cost even 
beyond Wormtail's original hand, I suspect.

Luke wrote <lots of good stuff on characteristic dialogue>

One thing that struck me immediately when I picked up QTTA and FB was that 
Dumbledore's "voice" jumped right off the page.  It was instantly 
recognizable, the way a friend's way of talking is; he doesn't sound quite 
like anyone else.  This is something fanfic writers very seldom manage to 
capture (with any character), which is understandable, because the 
characters live in JKR's head, not ours.  I'm not sure which of Luke's 
categories explains what made the prefaces sound like Albus Dumbledore and 
no one else; for lack of a better term (perhaps Luke will have one?) I call 
it "voice."  It's a combination of subtle things like phrasing and rhythm in 
addition to the more obvious cues such as accent and favorite phrases.  And 
so, yes, MMMfanfic, I think that JKR alters Snape's speech patterns because 
like most teachers, he speaks differently to his colleagues than to his 
students.  I don't think there is a deep dark secret about Snape concealed 
in this tendency; rather, it shows how sensitive JKR is to these subtle 
changes.

Voice in general is something JKR does superlatively.  Many other writers, 
and I'm talking about professionals now, can't pull it off; their characters 
all sound alike (like the authors, maybe?).

Wanda S. wrote:

>I have to think there is more to it than just decent behaviour - Snape
seems to be troubled by his obligation to James even after the
latter's death, and acts as though he's bound to honour the debt even
into the next generation.  There must be some strong motivation for
Snape to do something so obviously unpleasant - would something happen
to him if he acted otherwise? <

At the risk of sounding like a Snape fan, I think the man has a strongly 
developed sense of duty and honor.  No supernatural explanation is 
necessary.  James saved his life and then died just a few years later, so 
perhaps Snape never got to repay the favor and relieve his own burden.  Or, 
more likely, he did, by tipping the Potters off to the fact that V. was 
gunning for them, but that prat James died anyway.  Also, I think Snape 
would die to protect Harry even if he'd never known James--JMHO.

Tabouli, your speculations on Snape's hatred of Harry are eloquent and 
well-reasoned as always.  However, I think human psychology allows all too 
many reasons for irrational hatred.  For example, when I was a teacher I had 
a colleague who irrationally could not stand one of my favorite students.  
He was a very smart kid who always got picked on, and my personal theory is 
that she was a picker-onner herself and he reminded her of all the swots she 
couldn't stand as a kid.  (My affection for him had nothing to do with the 
fact that *I* was a smart kid who got picked on, o' course!  <bg>)  Or who 
knows--maybe he looked like her cousin who died tragically at age 10 and it 
filled her with impotent rage to look at him.  My point is that people do 
project all sorts of nasty things onto other people for no very solid 
reason.
Here's a fictional example, again of a teacher, from Barbara Kingsolver's 
Animal Dreams (the speaker is a woman teaching in the high school she went 
to):  "I yanked up Hector Jones by the arm and made an example of him.  I 
have to admit I disliked Hector partially for unfair reasons:  his father 
was a former hoodlum named Simon Bolivar Jones who'd been noticeably unkind 
to me in school."  Haven't we all done something like this?

Having disliked a student's father, whom the student greatly resembles, 
should be plenty reason for someone who, shall we say, needs a little anger 
management training to begin with.

Cait, yes, it's Nuada, king of the Tuatha De, who loses his hand (some 
versions say arm) and is given a silver replacement.

laoisecronin wrote:

>Any way Lupin isn't even facing a  demontor when showing harry what to do.

If the Boggart can act like a Dementor to Harry, I think it's a Dementor to 
anyone else in the room.  Not everyone agrees with me, to be sure.

>He should only produce something like clouds when the boggart changes in to 
>the moon,because that's his fear , the dementor is Harrys.

Lupin wouldn't conjure a Patronus to fight off a Boggart--he would turn it 
into something amusing (we never see what he does to make the moon amusing). 
  In his tutorials with Harry, he deals with it as a Boggart, because it 
turns back into the moon when he steps forward.  The question is, when Lupin 
does face a Dementor, as he does on the train, what form does his Patronus 
take?

The cloud suggestion wasn't about Boggarts; it was from someone (sorry I 
can't find who--it was a good suggestion!) who said that because of his 
lycanthropy, clouds might symbolize protection for Lupin, paralleling the 
way a stag symbolizes protection for Harry.

Amy Z
not about to join L.O.L.L.I.P.O.P.S., but sighing and ponying up another 2 
Sickles for S.O.F.T.W.A.R.E. membership

---------------------------------------------------------------
"And some old witch in Bath had a book that you could =never
stop reading=!  You just had to wander around with your nose
in it, trying to do everything one-handed."
                    --Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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