Wizard Photographs

[snazzzybird]

No: HPFGUIDX 42370

I wrote:

> > However, canon gives us an incident which confuses this issue.  
I'm 
> > sorry I can't remember which book it's in -- but Percy has a 
> > photograph of Penelope Clearwater, and she's ducking out of the 
photo 
> > because she has a pimple.  Did she have this pimple when the 
photo 
> > was taken?  Unlikely, because she wouldn't have given such a 
photo to 
> > Percy.  (Or if he was the photographer, she would have begged him 
not 
> > to take a picture of her until the pimple cleared up, and he 
surely 
> > would have complied.)  So how did the "Penelope" in the photo get 
the 
> > pimple?  If she got it because the real-life Penelope got one, 
then 
> > why doesn't the wedding photo of Sirius Black show a thin man 
with 
> > long, scraggly hair?

Then Andrea wrote: 
> Easy enough -- it wasn't a pimple. :)  The twins spilled tea on the 
photo
> and she was hiding because of the tea stain, not a pimple.
> 
> My opinion is that the photograph is literally a snapshot of that 
person
> at that moment in time -- whatever he or she is feeling in addition 
to how
> he/she looks.  So Lockhart's pictures are always vain because that's
> literally the only thought in his head. ;)  Harry was struggling to 
get
> away because that's what he was doing when the picture was taken --
> physically and mentally.  Penelope was taking a picture for her 
boyfriend,
> so she probably wanted to look pretty, which the tea stain ruined.
> 
> Andrea
> 
snazzzybird again:

Now I have the book in front of me (PoA, hardback, U.S. edition), and 
I see that the reference is ambiguous.  On Page 69, the first page of 
Chapter Five, "The Dementor", Ron says to Harry, "At least I can get 
away from Percy at Hogwarts.  Now he's accusing me of dripping tea on 
his photo of Penelope Clearwater... She's hidden her face under the 
frame because her nose has gone all blotchy."  Ron doesn't say 
whether or not he dripped tea on the photo, or whether tea was 
dripped on the photo at all: just that Percy accused him of same.  
And to me, the language itself is vague: "her nose has gone all 
blotchy" doesn't sound like some outside force caused the 
blotchiness.  But that could be my own misinterpretation of a British 
manner of speaking.  

--snazzzy "separated by a common language" bird