Cat, Rat and Dog

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27147

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., cynthiaanncoe at h... wrote:
> I have more questions about the events in this Chapter, and I am 
> sincerely hoping the answers are not painfully obvious.  Apologies 
> in advance if they are.
> 
> At the beginning of the Shrieking Shack scene, Black disarms Harry 
> and Hermione and then says the following:
> 
> "I thought you'd come and help your friend."   <snip>  "Your father 
> would have done the same for me.  Brave of you, not to run for a 
> teacher.  I'm grateful . . . it will make everything much easier."
> 
> What does Black mean by "it will make everything much easier"?  I 
> would think the easiest thing for Black is to just have Ron and 
> Pettigrew there, force Pettigrew to transform, kill him, and take 
> him back to the castle.  I must be missing something.

Obviously, the main reason for this sentence was so that we would 
still think Sirius was after Harry.  But this is not an example of 
JKR's misdirection at its very best, IMO, because the real explanation 
is so, I don't know, contrived solely to make the false explanation 
sound right.  It seems to me that the alleged real reason for Sirius 
making this comment is the fact that their not running for help will 
make things easier, not so much their presence there.  When he goes 
after Ron, he is counting on them to follow because he probably 
assumes that they can do less to stop him than any teacher they might 
run and bring.  He's probably right.  But anyway, it's still a 
partially lame alternate interpretation.

Either that or I'm missing something too.

> Second question:  Outside the Whomping Willow, Ron is lying on the 
> ground with Scabbers while Harry and Hermione are on their feet.  
> Sirius attacks Harry, then circles back and grabs Ron after Ron has 
> stood up.  Why doesn't Sirius just leave his godson alone and 
> instead grab Ron while he is on the ground and drag him off, and why 
> doesn't Harry or Hermione (especially Hermione) just use magic to > 
overcome Sirius before he drags Ron away?

I don't remember the details about this.  I'd have to go whip out PoA.

-Luke