TBAY: The Night The Jabberknoll Screamed

[abigailnus]

No: HPFGUIDX 38906

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "cindysphynx" <cindysphynx at c...> wrote:
> And the key to it all is the Jabberknoll.  According to Fantastic 
> Beasts and Where To Find Them, p. 23. "Jobberknoll: "The Jobberknoll 
> (northern Europe and America) is a tiny blue, speckled bird which 
> eats small insects. It makes no sound until the moment of its death, 
> at which point it lets out a long scream made up of every sound it 
> has ever heard, regurgitated backwards. Jobberknoll 
> feathers are used in Truth Serums and Memory Potions."

You know, I kind of hate to bring this up because it seems so, well, petty,=
 
but this has really been troubling me.

Are the HP Schoolbooks canon?

I mean, obviously they are canon because they were written by The Creator, =

so they must be true in the Potterverse.  I'm just not sure they are fair g=
ame 
for theorizing with.  Canon is like building blocks - if you want to use th=
e "Harry 
fired the gun" block on the third level of your tower there had better be a=
 
"Harry has a gun" block somewhere below it, or the whole thing just comes 
crashing down.  JKR is very good at laying out her blocks way ahead of time=
 - 
for example, Sirius Black, the concept of Animagi and Mrs. Figg are all int=
roduced, 
however briefly, in PS.  And, while JKR certainly has the right to assume t=
hat 
someone reading the 4th book has read the three preceeding it, she doesn't =
- 
important facts are reintroduced at the beginning of every book, and the th=
ree 
examples I mentioned are each reiterated at the beginning of whatever book =

they figure in.  

It *isn't* a fair assumption on JKR's part that all her readers have read t=
he 
schoolbooks, as they are not part of the standard narrative, and given 
her penchant for laying out her foundation so early, it just seems out of 
character for her to introduce some Jabberknoll-based potion and have one o=
f 
the characters say that they read about it in FB.  I think the schoolbooks =
should 
be in their own category of canon - JKR (and we) can't go against it, but b=
asing 
a theory strictly on information in the schoolbooks should be a yellow flag=
 violation
 - at least wave the thing around for a while.  

But don't mind me.  I don't like basing theories on JKR's interview answers=
, because 
what if she changes her mind (or, as in the infamous Weasly cousin case, di=
scovers 
a gaping plot hole and has to change the story?)

> Now I take note of Elkins' recent suggestion that Aurors probably 
> are trained to resist the Imperius Curse and can't easily be 
> controlled by it.  Ah, but they can!  When Dumbledore finds Real 
> Moody in the trunk, he says, "Stunned – controlled by the Imperius 
> Curse . . . "  

Yes, but he was Stunned *and* Imperius-ed!  We know that stunning eventuall=
y 
wears off (Snape shakes his off after receiving a triple and "over-enthusia=
stic" 
dose in PoA) and that a strong-minded, properly trained person (both of whi=
ch 
Moody obviously is) can shake off an Imperius - but both of them together? =
 Even 
Moody wouldn't be able to recover from that, and if he did, he would be loc=
ked in 
a box (and a man who keeps a secret dungeon inside his trunk probably didn'=
t 
make it easy to escape), cold, hurt, probably not too well-fed, and missing=
 both a 
leg and an eye.  I think it's entirely possible that Moody shook off the Im=
perius 
several times and couldn't do a thing about his situation.  

This leaves me with only the fact that we know Crouch Jr. got information o=
ut 
of Moody by Imperius-ing him, and I really don't know how to answer that, e=
xcept 
that perhaps one's physical fitness affects one's ability to shake of the I=
mperius 
control, and if Moody was mistreated as I suggested, he might have found fi=
ghting 
off the curse harder (now who's got a yellow flag waving?)

> Before you know it, owls are arriving at MoM carrying panicked 
> messages about the Dark Mark over the Longbottom's house.  The 
> citizens are coming unhinged at the sight of the Dark Mark again.  
> Moody, the best of the Aurors, is dispatched to investigate.  But 
> guess who else shows up at the Longbottoms' house?  
> 
> Snape.  
> 
> Snape, the former DE, the nosy Hogwarts professor who spies for 
> Dumbledore.  Severus "I'll do anything to be awarded The Order of 
> Merlin" Snape.  The guy who given to trying to bring in the bad guys 
> himself, like he tried to do with Quirrel/Lupin/Black.  It is common 
> knowledge by this point that Snape is a former DE who spied for 
> Dumbledore before Voldemort fell.  Moody, as we learn in the 
> Pensieve scene, Doesn't Care For Our Dear Severus.  Not at all.

Yes, but Snape's reaction to Moody is just too bland for my taste.  Shouldn=
't 
there be some residual "hey, we tormented a toddler together!" vibe between=
 
them?  I mean, this is the man who supposedly makes Neville's life miserabl=
e 
because he (Snape) did something terrible to him (Neville) which he now fee=
ls 
guilty about, but there's just no attitude coming off him towards Moody.  
Nothing apart from a general resentment for the fact that Moody still think=
s 
he's a DE, the same Moody who, 14 years or so ago, trusted Snape enough to =

involve him in an important criminal investigation, even though Snape is no=
t only 
a lowly civilain, but a former DE.  It just doesn't work for me.

Abigail