Harry's Dream (was Re: Voices from the past)

[Carol Bainbridge]

No: HPFGUIDX 47203

Indigo wrote:
>I find it entirely plausible for Snape to have been there the night
>that Lily and James died...if not a bit of a stretch in cannon.
>However, it's a nice explanation for Harry's dream.

The thing I find so much fun in interpreting/analyzing these books is that 
what seems like a stretch when we don't know all the facts turns out to be 
exactly what happens.  I for one never guessed that Quirrel was the bad guy 
in PS/SS.  Once I knew and went back through the book, it seemed terribly 
obvious.  JKR fooled me again in CoS, and that time I was prepared to be 
fooled.  Didn't matter.  Until we have all seven books we can't be 
absolutely sure what any slight mention of something might mean.  All we 
can do is work with what we see JKR's strategies to be -- such as 
mentioning something in one book only to have it play a dominant role in a 
future book -- and what is in the book.  After that, any theory that 
explains apparent discrepancies, contradictions, or mysteries is just as 
likely to happen as the next, as long as there is some justification.  In 
other words, it can't just come out of nowhere.

Indigo provides the quotation in question:
>"Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very
>strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept
>talking to him, telling him that he must transfer to Slytherin at
>once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban that he
>didn't want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried
>to pull it off but it tightened painfully-- and there was Malfoy
>laughing at him as he struggled with it-- then Malfoy turned into the
>hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold-- there
>was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking."

Then Indigo says:
>Even still, I see it as a bit of stretch...The dream can be
>interpreted anyway one chooses it to (as can the rest of
>cannon)...The most obvious foreshadowing was that of Quirrell's
>turban, since we know who that is...but what I find interesting is
>that he says it's Harry's destiny and that the more Harry rejects the
>idea, the heavier and more painful his load becomes.

Yes, it's obvious NOW that the dream could be a foreshadowing of Quirrel's 
turban.  But that's only because we know what was under that turban.  We 
don't have the rest of the story, so we don't know yet if there is 
something more to that dream.

Indigo again:
>Heck, we could
>interpret that as that Harry is the heir of Slytherin or somesuch
>great thing, or just compare it to Harry's journey so forth (we know
>things will get darker as the series progresses)...or that he will be
>a tragic hero- cue the green light at the end of the dream.

Yes, we could, but where would it get us?  I just thought about that dream 
and those characters and tried to see how it might help tie together some 
loose ends that have been problematic.  If someone else wants to take that 
dream and come up with a different interpretation that will explain other 
parts of the story, great.  That's just more to think about.

Indigo yet again:
>Reading
>it again, I see Draco being there for the sheer prospect of
>being...well, a Malfoy. Laughing while Potter struggles. Snape, well,
>we still don't quite know his part just yet, other then that he hates
>James, he was a death eater double agent who has apparently
>turned 'good' guy...for all we know he could be laughing in the dream
>because he's seeing the irony in Harry suspecting him in the future,
>yet it being Quirrell's turban so tightly bound to his head....and oh
>dear, I'm rambling.

Yes, it could be all those things.  But again, what would be the 
purpose?  Don't we already know that Draco is ... well, a Malfoy?  What 
would JKR's purpose be in including that part just to give us that 
information?

Indigo:
>The thing is that sometimes a dream is just a dream, not a memory or
>prophecy or foreshadowing....perhaps Harry just ate some funny
>treacle pudding at dinner the night before, eh? ;-D

Yes, a dream could be just a dream, but somehow I don't see JKR putting a 
dream in the story just because Harry ate something funny and it's just a 
dream.  Why THAT dream?  I'm sure JKR could have made that dream anything 
she wanted it to be.  Why THAT one?

I'm perfectly willing to believe that my theory is full of holes and 
couldn't possibly be right, but I can't believe that JKR didn't mean 
something more in that dream than a foreshadowing of what's beneath 
Quirrel's turban.  I think she's far too clever for that.  I think she 
wants us to think that Harry's dream about Malfoy laughing and then turning 
into Snape is a typical dream born of anxiety or other feelings about 
people who bother us.  Who among us hasn't had such a dream at some point 
or another?  Then we find out about Quirrel and think, "Ah, that's what 
that dream is really about -- it's a foreshadowing of what's under 
Quirrel's turban.  Then we forget all about it.  Just what she wants us to 
do.

Now, whether the dream means what I'm growing more and more to believe or 
whether it means something else, I definitely think it's more than the 
simple Quirrelmort foreshadowing.

Carol