Time-turner - PoA plot - Calendar - Lockhart

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 27556

Jon wrote:

>  its introduced out of the blue (and no, 
> Hermione's schedule doesn't count)

Why doesn't it?  I think JKR does a great job of setting up the 
time-turner by making it a part of a minor plotline through the book.

I agree that a problem with the t-t is that Harry would think about 
the possibilities of saving, or at least seeing, his parents.  No one 
would let him do it, but he'd want to, and we don't see him mull it 
over either in PoA or GoF.

The focal point question in PoA is interesting.  In a way, it's true 
that there is no single central plot, because one candidate 
(Quidditch) lacks gravitas and another (Sirius v. Harry) proves to be 
an illusion.  But in terms of what plotline drives the book, I would 
say it's the latter.  We "know" from very early on that Sirius Black 
is trying to kill Harry, and we know there will be a confrontation at 
the end--and there is.  The only reason that we look back and say 
"that wasn't the main storyline" is that there's a twist.  And that's 
why the story doesn't wrap up in the Shrieking Shack, even though that 
scene *seems* like it's going to be the climax.

Beyond that, there is another focal point:  the whole backstory of 
MWPP (and S).  One of the many things I love about the book is that 
while Harry is going about his life--lighter things like wanting to go 
to Hogsmeade and playing Quidditch, heavier things like hearing his 
parents and coping with Dementors--there is another drama mostly 
invisible to him (and to us, until the second reading):  that of 
Lupin, Black, Snape, and, if you think about it, Pettigrew.

We think the story is about Black trying to kill Harry, so the plot 
seems focused on that; but that's not what the story is about.  It's 
about Sirius in a whole different way, and it's as much about 
Pettigrew, and right on out of the pages of this volume to Voldemort. 
 
The more I think about the plotting of PoA, the more impressive it 
seems.  JKR has all these threads going, and they're interwoven in 
amazing ways:  

-the most-important-to-Harry thread (Quidditch)

-the emotional thread (Dementors/J&L).  It is interwoven with 
Quidditch, without which Harry wouldn't keep hearing his parents' 
voices.

-the drives-the-plot thread (Sirius trying to kill Harry), interwoven 
with the seemingly trivial thread of Harry trying to get into the 
village (key because of the Sirius plot, and because it introduces the 
Map)

-the true Sirius story (evidence throughout that Sirius is trying to 
save Harry--also, things like the Firebolt, brilliantly tied to the 
Quidditch thread but also establishing Sirius's character and the 
Sirius-Harry relationship, once we learn the truth)

-the false and true Crookshanks/Scabbers/Pettigrew storylines

-Hermione's schedule (and accompanying crabbiness), which is a minor 
and humorous storyline but becomes central to the plot by the end

-the Buckbeak thread, which also seems to be mostly about Hagrid and 
Draco but becomes central by the end

-the character of Trelawney and Divination--all the set-up about 
whether to take Divination seriously

-the character of Lupin--which is probably a lot of setting-up for 
stories yet to be told in OoP and (knock wood) beyond.

-the character of Snape, who hits a low in this book but whose 
backstory is also set up for the revelations of GoF, especially 
poignantly if he turns out post-GoF to have been the spy who tipped 
off J&L.

Everything balances.  The storylines that seem trivial either turn out 
to be central (Crookshanks v. Scabbers) or serve to bring in 
storylines that are essential (Quidditch, e.g., brings in 
Sirius-as-godfather, and the Dementors/J&L issue).  The real character 
dramas are largely below the surface (interactions among the MWPP 
generation).  It's amazing.

Steve wrote:

> As for the number of days, we know that they start on 1 September 
and 
> end in the third week of Juune (or pretty close to that...depends on 
> the book, really). So how many days would that be? Are they counting 
> weekends and holidays in that number? How many days do they take at 
> Christmas and Easter? I'd have to really dig into a calendar to see 
> if this number works, and I don't have time to do it.

In a non-leap year, September 1-May 31 is 273 days.  Don't reach for a 
straitjacket, it only took a minute to add it up on the calculator!  
So they're saying Hogwarts ends the first week of June.  We know from 
canon that the end of the school year in fact varies wildly--they 
don't get home 'til almost July in GoF.

If you take out holidays, GoF might work (a couple of weeks at 
Christmas, one at Easter?), but it ends as much as two weeks later as 
the other books. 

Lockhart:  Hagrid is not the most reliable source, but because of the 
emphasis ("He was the *on'y* man for the job . . . And I mean the 
*on'y* one," CoS 7), I lean toward the idea that Dumbledore was 
scraping the bottom of the barrel with GL and knew it.  Sometimes you 
just have to find a warm body.  Lupin, I'm guessing, either refused 
point-blank or was unavailable for other reasons.  The Wolfsbane 
Potion might not even have been developed yet.

My problem with Lockhart-the-character isn't his incompetence.  I just 
don't think anyone in real life would be that obvious:  e.g. his whole 
speech to Harry about how "all that business with He Who Must Not Be 
Named" is "not quite as good as winning *Witch Weekly*'s 
Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row," and his quiz about his 
favorite color, etc. . . to me, it's over the top.

Amy Z

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 . . . They made their way into the entrance hall,
 which was completely devoid of mad axe-men.
                  -HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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