TBAY: Scriptwriting for Pleasure and Profit (1 of 2)

[Dicentra spectabilis]

No: HPFGUIDX 77510

This post was originally presented at Nimbus 2003 on July 19th, 2003
under the title "Scriptwriting for Pleasure and Profit: The Power of
the Written Word in *Harry Potter*."  This version includes some extra
stuff that time did not permit.


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Dicentra stood anxiously on the shore of Theory Bay, her toes curling
in the sand. With her hand over her eyes, she scanned the water,
looking for the familiar stumbling gait of Stoned!Harry amid the
flotilla of theories that had survived the latest ravages of 
Hurricane Jo. To her left was the perennially seaworthy destroyer Big
Bang, which represents the theory that JKR prefers to use highly
dramatic, cinematic, or even melodramatic events to serve as catalytic
turning points in her characters' lives. 

Farther out was the popular ship LOLLIPOPS, which posits that Snape
once had a crush on Lily. Barely visible on the shore, a few meters
away, was the wreckage of the Fourth Man hovercraft, which once
postulated that the fourth man convicted with Barty Crouch Jr. was
none other than the hapless Avery from the graveyard scene.

Finally, Dicentra saw someone emerge from behind the Big Bang, trip on
his robes and fall face-first onto the water's surface. Stoned!Harry
-- the personification of the theory that Harry is the living
embodiment of the Philosopher's Stone and therefore has the potential
for immortality -- is able to walk on water, but because he's, well,
stoned, he tends to be a little clumsy. 

As Harry stumbled toward the shore, Dicentra glared at him, hands on
hips. He swerved to avoid running straight into her.

"Hey!" she said, grabbing a handful of Stoned!Harry's robes. "You
promised you'd help."

"Wha...?"  He turned around and stared at her blankly.

"Just come with me," she said, dragging Stoned!Harry up toward the
Canon Museum, the only structure in Theory Bay that grows every time
Hurricane Jo sweeps through.  Its shiny new fifth story glinted in the
sunlight.

Once at the museum, Dicentra took Stoned!Harry straight down into the
basement and stopped expectantly at a door marked "Prop Room."

"I don't have the key," she explained.  Stoned!Harry obliged with a
quick Alohomora and they went inside.  They entered an enormous room
filled with shelves from floor to ceiling, all of them populated with
objects found in canon.

"See, I promised I'd put up a new exhibit in that dusty display case
near the men's room," Dicentra explained.  "So I have to go through
all this stuff and find some things that have a common thread.  Put
that down...!"  Stoned!Harry had found a half-filled box of Bertie
Bott's Every Flavour Beans and was poking through it.  "You don't know
where those have been.  Now help me find something interesting."

Dicentra began to walk slowly down the aisles, looking at the objects
on the shelves. She saw neatly folded school uniforms, hedgehogs in
various stages of becoming pincushions, stacks of golden dishes,
telescopes, glass vials...

"Ah, here's something."  She plucked at something fluid and silvery
gray, which slithered to the floor and lay there in gleaming folds. 

"That's my invisibility cloak," whispered Stoned!Harry.  "Dumbledore
gave it to me."

Dicentra stowed it back on the shelf. "You're not the real Harry," she
said under her breath, and not for the first time.  She had tried to
explain to Stoned!Harry that he was only a theory, not a canonical
character, but he was always too dazed to understand the difference.

Dicentra continued down to the end of that aisle, then up the next. 
Stoned!Harry wandered off into another aisle.  She found broomsticks,
cages, cauldrons, candlesticks, inkpots, quills.  Just as she was
lifting the visor on a suit of armor, she heard a loud crash. 

"What have you done now?" she called out as she strode off toward the
noise.

A muffled voice answered, "puhfuh."

Dicentra stopped at the end of the aisle whence the noise came and saw
an enormous pile of paper, some of it moving slightly.  It appeared
that at least a dozen boxes had tumbled from the shelves and emptied
themselves directly on top of him.  She hurried over and began to dig
through the papers until Stoned!Harry's head emerged from the pile.

"Papers!" he cried out.  

"You don't say," Dicentra said, lips pursed.  "Now we're going to have
to put all these back where they belong.  Not that way!" She grabbed
the wand that Stoned!Harry had just begun to wave.  "You don't even
know where they all belong.  We're going to have to sort through them
by hand."  

Pouting slightly, Stoned!Harry climbed out of the pile and plopped
down on the floor.  He poked at the paper with his wand, causing an
avalanche of envelopes.  

"Don't do that either!" Dicentra protested.  "Just look through them
and see where they go."

"They're all the same," said Stoned!Harry, petulantly.  "They all go
in the same place."

"What do you mean they're all the same?" Dicentra said, looking up.

"They're all like this."  He held up an envelope and passed it to her.
 The envelope was unopened, but Dicentra knew immediately what was
inside.  It was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the
address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.  On the
other side of the envelope was a purple wax seal bearing a coat of
arms: a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large
letter H.  The address read:

Mr. Harry Potter
The Cupboard under the Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey

"Those are all my letters," said Stoned!Harry.  "The first letters I
ever got."

"Of course," mused Dicentra.  "These are the Letters From No One, from
*Philosopher's Stone*." 

"I didn't even know I was a wizard then," added Stoned!Harry.  "Hey!"
 He reached up into the pile and plucked out a small slip of paper
from near the top.  "I bet there's only one of these."

Dicentra took the paper from his hand.  It was small strip of
parchment, slightly singed at the edges, with the words "Harry Potter"
scrawled on one side.  

"That's the one that came out of the goblet of fire, isn't it?" he
said.  "I sure wish I never saw that one. It caused nothing but
trouble for me."

"Everything causes Harry nothing but trouble," said Dicentra absently,
staring hard at the envelope and the parchment. "Wait a minute," she
said slowly.  "Both of these papers cause something awfully big to
happen, don't they?"

"I suppose so," Stoned!Harry shrugged.

"I wonder how many other of these papers make something big happen." 
She immediately grabbed a sheaf of papers off the pile and began to
rifle through them.  "Come on, help me find more important papers.  I
think I've got an idea for the display."

As Dicentra sorted through a stack of Transfiguration exams,
third-year class schedules, and History of Magic essays, another piece
of paper fell into her lap.  It was a clipping from the *Daily
Prophet*, folded neatly, but the paper was dirty and worn thin at the
folds.  Gingerly, she opened it up.  It was a photo of an Egyptian
pyramid.  The headline beneath it read, "Ministry of Magic Employee
Scoops Grand Prize."

"Hey, isn't this the clipping Ron sends to Harry?" she asked Stoned!Harry.

"No," he said, squinting at it. "The one Ron gave me wasn't all icky
like that.  And you could see Ron's family."

Dicentra looked at the photo again.  The head of Percy Weasley poked
into the frame from the left side of the picture.  He frowned and
disappeared from view, only to return a moment later dragging George
and Ron with him.  Fred soon followed, and Molly, Arthur, and Ginny
hurried in from the right side of the frame.  They posed again for
their group photo, Percy donning his fez and Ron placing Scabbers on
his shoulder.

"You mean like this," she said, holding up the clipping again.

"Yeah," said Stoned!Harry, "but it still looks too old."

"Oh, I know!" she exclaimed.  "This is the clipping that Sirius Black
carries with him all through *Prisoner of Azkaban*."  She cradled it
reverently in her hands.  "I think this one most definitely qualifies
as causing something big to happen.  I mean, if it weren't for this,
Sirius never would have found it in him to escape."  She set it down
beside the parchment scrap and the admission letter.  

Stoned!Harry leaned over the pile to look at the papers in front of
Dicentra.  "One from the first year, one from the third year, and one
from the fourth year," he observed.

"Hey, you're right," she said. And then after a moment, "Galloping
gargoyles, do you know what these three pieces of paper have in
common?  They're what kick off the action of each novel.  Look," she
said, picking up the envelope.  "The plot of *Philosopher's Stone*
doesn't really start until Harry gets his letter from Hogwarts.  The
central mystery of *Prisoner of Azkaban* begins when Sirius sees this
article in the *Daily Prophet*.  And when this scrap of paper pops
out, that's when the action of *Goblet of Fire* really starts."

Stoned!Harry stared blankly at her.  "So?" 

"So?  Don't you get it?  This is a pattern!  Pieces of paper are the
catalyst for all of Harry's adventures!"

"What about my second year?"

"Oh. Yeah,"  Dicentra said, frowning.  "Let's see.  When does the
action of *Chamber of Secrets* start?"

"With the pudding," said Stoned!Harry, a wistful look on his face.

"Not with the pudding," sighed Dicentra. 

"I got a letter because of the pudding," he persisted.

"That's right -- the letter from Mafalda Hopkirk warning him about the
use of magic outside of school.  But I don't think that really kicks
off the action.  I mean, the central mystery of the novel is who is
the Heir of Slytherin and where is the Chamber of Secrets.  That
letter has nothing to do with it."

Stoned!Harry stood suddenly and jabbed his wand in the air, shouting,
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened! Enemies of the Heir, Beware!"
 Some purple sparks shot out of his wand.

"Oh, sit down," said Dicentra, annoyed.  She resumed digging through
the pile of papers, but stopped.  "Wait," she said. "That is when the
action began in *Chamber of Secrets*.  When they see the handwriting
on the wall.  That's what kicks off the central mystery."

"It's not paper," Stoned!Harry said cheekily.

"No, but it is writing," said Dicentra.  "*That's* it then.  It's not
the paper that kicks off the action, but the writing.  Writing is the
key, regardless of whether it's on paper or not.  Writing is what
makes things happen in the Potterverse."

An hour later, Dicentra sat surrounded by neat stacks of parchment. 
"OK," she said to herself, "I think I've got it all figured out. 
Hey!" she kicked Stoned!Harry's foot; he sat up suddenly from where he
had been napping on the floor.  "Check this out; I was right about the
papers..." but she trailed off when she saw Stoned!Harry's face.  He
was staring wide-eyed at something above and behind her, his mouth
hanging open.

Dicentra wheeled around to see two figures standing behind her.  She
felt the blood drain from her face as she realized who they were.

"Hey, whatcha doin'?" boomed one of them.  Captain Cindy strode over
to the piles of parchment, recklessly grabbed a handful, and began to
sift through them, tossing them randomly on the floor. Cindy was
captain of the Big Bang and had a reputation as one of the most
formidable denizens of Theory Bay.  She made her crewmembers scrub the
deck of the Big Bang with toothbrushes, tried to drown a theory she
didn't like, tossed the local tavern when she encountered a theory she
thought was too complicated, and spectacularly failed her anger
management class.  Tucked underneath one arm was her trademark Big
Paddle, which everyone knew to stay clear of.

"Yeah, Dicey, what gives?" said Elkins, who sat down next to Dicentra
and began to poke through the piles.  Elkins was another of the more
formidable denizens of the bay but for different reasons.  Elkins had
delivered a three-day Memory Charm Symposium in the basement of the
Canon Museum, a nine-part treatise on the Crouch family saga, used
words like "subsumption" and "bildungsroman" and "realpolitik" without
blinking, and frequently got away with subversive readings of canon.  

Dicentra finally found her voice.  "You guys, put that stuff back,"
she squeaked.  

"Back where?" said Cindy, "on the floor, where I found it?  Well, OK."
She opened her hand and let the parchment drop to the floor.

"Oh look," said Elkins. "Here are all those chocolate frog cards.  A
couple of Dumbledores, some Circes and a Merlin...  what's all this
about, Dicey?  What are you doing down here."

"Nothing," Dicentra said, shortly.  

"Doesn't look like nothing to me," said Cindy as she sat herself down
right next to Stoned!Harry, who, to her great amusement, slid away
from her.  "Actually, it looks like you're trying to put together an
exhibit for that dusty old display case by the men's room."

"They told us at the front desk why you were down here," Elkins said,
grinning at Dicentra's startled expression.

"So it's about parchment, is it?" asked Cindy.

"Sort of," said Dicentra, relaxing only a little.  "I think I've found
a pattern.  See, in each book, the action is kicked off by something
somebody wrote." She held up the admission letter, the clipping of the
Weasleys in Egypt, and the singed scrap. "In *Chamber of Secrets*,
it's the handwriting on the wall that starts it all."

Elkins looked mildly impressed.  "Say, you're right. Who knew?"

"What about *Order of the Phoenix*?" smirked Cindy. "Which bit of
writing kicks off the action there -- the Muggle newspapers Harry
pulls out of the dumpsters?" 

"Trick question," replied Dicentra. "*Order of the Phoenix* doesn't
have a central mystery like the first four. The action is kicked off
by the return of Voldemort in *Goblet of Fire*." 

"What about the rest of the papers, Dicey?" said Elkins quickly,
seeing Cindy's hands tighten around her Paddle.

"I figure that the other important moments are provoked by written
material," she continued.  "I've got it... well, I had it sorted by
book..."

"Say no more," said Cindy, grabbing Stoned!Harry's wand and magicking
the paper back into place.  Without missing a beat, Elkins grabbed the
stack nearest her, which contained the papers from *Philosopher's Stone*. 

"Well, here's the letter that Hagrid presents to the goblins at
Gringotts, authorizing the stone's retrieval from the vault," she said.

"Yeah, that's a real turning point in the story," said Cindy, barely
concealing the sarcasm in her voice.

"And here are the letters between Ron and his brother Charlie when
they arrange to send Norbert to Romania," Elkins continued.

"A moment so pivotal it didn't even make it into the movie," Cindy
said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, they leave pivotal scenes out of the movies all the time,"
protested Dicentra.  "Like that one from Chamber of Secrets where they
figure out that Tom Riddle was around the last time the chamber was
opened, and the ones that show Harry wondering if he..."

"The chocolate frog cards are pretty important," interrupted Elkins,
as she fanned them out in her hand.

"Yes, the frog cards are important," said Dicentra. "They are one of
the clues that help the Trio figure out what is hidden under the trap
door.  And so are these..." she pulled some papers from the stack
Elkins was holding.  "Look, here's the one that came with the
invisibility cloak, the one that says 'Use it well,' and the other one
that says 'Just in case.'  And this article in the Daily Prophet about
the break-in at Gringotts: it says the break-in happened on July 31st,
so that leads Harry to wonder if the thief was looking for whatever
Hagrid took from vault 713."

"Oh yeah?" challenged Cindy.  "What about the first clue: the
three-headed dog?  That wasn't writing."

Dicentra sat, dumbfounded; her eyes began to well up with tears.
  
"It's ok, Dicey," Elkins said, patting her gently on the shoulder. 
"You just have to adjust your theory a little.  I think you're onto
something.  There is a preponderance of written material in the
series.  It's just a matter of discovering what it means."

Elkins returned to the papers in her hand.  "Let's look at some more.
Ok, here's the riddle for Snape's potions..." She held up the roll of
paper with the logic puzzle.  "It's the final obstacle before Harry
finds the Stone... and what's this?"  She unrolled a large piece of
tissue paper.  "Erised stra ehru oyt...?"

"Oh, I made a rubbing of the inscription on the Mirror of Erised,"
Dicentra explained.  "It's up in one of the dioramas upstairs."  

Elkins had two pieces of paper left in her hands.  One was an
envelope, the other a small piece of rolled parchment.

"I've never seen those before," said Stoned!Harry in a very, very
small voice as he edged away from Cindy.

"No I don't expect you would have," said Dicentra, forgetting for a
moment that he was not really Harry.  "The envelope is the letter that
Dumbledore wrote to the Dursleys and left on the doorstep with you;
the other is the note that was supposedly from the Ministry of Magic,
calling Dumbledore away from Hogwarts on urgent business."

"Well, hey!" said Cindy jovially, as she put Stoned!Harry in a
headlock and pulled him closer. "That looks like a good exhibit to me,
eh Stoner?"  She gave him a furious noogie before releasing him.

Elkins frowned. "No, I don't think we've figured this out yet.  Maybe
we need to group them differently.  But according to what...?"

For a moment, there was silence.  Elkins stared at the papers in front
of her, Dicentra tried not to look at Stoned!Harry, who was sullenly
combing his fingers through his hair; Cindy began to balance her Big
Paddle on one finger.

"By author!" Elkins said, suddenly. Stoned!Harry jumped a little at
the sound of her voice.  Elkins began to sort the papers and soon had
them in the order she wanted.

"All right, now," said Elkins.  "In this largest pile are things
written by Dumbledore: the letter to the Dursleys, the letter
authorizing the Stone's removal from Gringott's, and the two notes
that accompanied the invisibility cloak."

"What about the Hogwarts acceptance letter?" asked Dicentra.

"Well, that was signed by McGonagall," said Elkins.

"But with Dumbledore's blessing," Dicentra persisted, "so I think it
should go with his letters."

"Fine by me," said Elkins, moving the letter.

Dicentra stared at the Dumbledore pile for a moment, then gasped
loudly. "Oh!  I know what it is!" she said excitedly.  "A long time
ago I posted something on Harry Potter for Grownups about Dumbledore's
role in *Philosopher's Stone*.  Get it for me, will you?" she said,
turning to Stoned!Harry.

Without taking his eyes off Cindy, Stoned!Harry conjured document
33289 from Jan. 12, 2002. Cindy intercepted it as he passed it to
Dicentra.

"Give me that," she barked.  "Lessee... 'I'd like to propose a theory
that builds on all that's been said and then goes one step further:
The spells were breakable by first-year students because Dumbledore
MEANT for Harry to face Voldemort. And in fact, most of the events of
*Philosopher's Stone* were engineered by Dumbledore for Harry's
benefit. (Sincere apologies if this very argument has been made
before, but parsing 33,000 posts to find out was a bit daunting.)'

"Ha!" she crowed. "It's the 'Sorry if this has been discussed before
but...' line! What a newbie!"  

"Hey!" Dicentra protested, trying to retrieve the document and
failing. "Everyone's a newbie once." She turned to Stoned!Harry. "Get
me another copy, would you?"  He obliged, and Dicentra sat back with
the document, narrowing her eyes at Cindy.

"Listen to what Harry concludes after his adventure," Dicentra
continued. "Harry says '"I think he sort of wanted to give me a
chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here,
you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and
instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don't
think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked.
It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I
could...."'

"See, Dumbledore is grooming Harry to play a particular role,"
Dicentra explained.  "Harry isn't fully aware of what it is, but you
know Dumbledore is looking at a much larger picture than Harry is." 

"And that is related to these papers how?" Cindy arched her eyebrows.

"He uses these papers to assign Harry his role," said Elkins suddenly,
eyes widening.  "It's as if Harry were an actor in a play, but instead
of seeing the whole script up front, he gets these occasional cues
from backstage. Look!"  She held up the Hogwarts admission letter.
"What kind of change did receiving this letter effect in Harry?  He
went from being an ordinary kid in lousy circumstances to a wizard who
belonged to a whole different world.  And not just any wizard, either.
He became The Boy Who Lived.  New life, new role."

"Right!" said Dicentra, "but it didn't end there." She read again from
the document. "'It cannot be a coincidence that Harry is with Hagrid
when he recovers the Stone. Dumbledore sends Hagrid to collect Harry
and get the Stone at the same time.' See, that's where this comes in,"
she said, holding up the letter Hagrid took to Gringotts.  "Harry
doesn't know it at the time, but Dumbledore is setting him up by
letting him be privy to the existence of the Stone."

Elkins took the document from Dicentra and read, "'Dumbledore gave
Harry the Cloak of Invisibility for Christmas, telling him to "use it
wisely." What could that mean except "go roaming about the school
after hours to figure out this mystery"?'  

"That's right," she mused. "And he gave Harry the cloak not once but
twice, both times with a mysterious note giving Harry implicit
permission to use the cloak in solving the mystery. He was definitely
using written materials to assign Harry his role."

"What about this?" said Cindy, holding up the letter to the Dursleys.
 "Fat lot of good this did.  Harry was supposed to know all of this
stuff but the Dursleys never told him."

"They never wanted me to get the letters from Hogwarts, either," piped
up Stoned!Harry.  

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a function for the Dursleys,"
Elkins said dramatically.  "Just as Dumbledore uses writing to assign
Harry his role, the Dursleys suppress writing to keep Harry from
fulfilling his destiny."  

Cindy snorted. "Well, that's nice and all, but you've forgotten
something.  The item that is explicitly associated with passing out
roles has nothing to do with paper or writing: the Sorting Hat."

Elkins let out her breath in a long, low hiss.  Dicentra rubbed her
chin thoughtfully. Stoned!Harry summoned the hat from a shelf two rows
away and began to play with it.

"Well, the hat is an object in a book and is therefore a literary
construct," said Dicentra, hesitantly.  "So it's made up of words."

"Nice try, but no dice, Dicey," said Cindy, staring fixedly at
Dicentra, who averted her gaze and pretended to be interested in her
fingernails.

"You got us there," said Elkins, "but that's ok.  You could always
argue that the hat isn't Dumbledore's tool.  After all, everyone gets
sorted, and what happens between Harry and the hat is, well, between
Harry and the hat.  Dumbledore knows about it, but he didn't tell
either the hat or Harry what to do."

"Maybe not every single thing that assigns Harry his role is written
matter, but that doesn't mean the theory isn't valid," Dicentra said,
regaining a modicum of confidence.  "What if we find stuff in the
other books to show how Harry gets his role handed to him in writing.
 Would that convince you at all?"

"Humph," said Cindy, crossing her arms defiantly.

"Well," said Elkins, clapping her hands cheerfully.  "That sounds like
a yes. On to Chamber of Secrets."  She scooted the pile toward
Dicentra. "Your turn."

"This pile seems a little bigger than the last," Dicentra observed.

"Longer book," snarled Cindy.

Dicentra picked up a bundle of unopened letters. "These are all
addressed to Harry."

"Those are *mine*," said Stoned!Harry, lunging at them. "Gimme."

Dicentra held them out of his reach. "These are the letters that Dobby
intercepted after Harry's first year at Hogwarts," she said, laughing.
 "Dobby never gave them to Harry, so I won't give them to you."  

Stoned!Harry sat back down sulkily, grabbed the Sorting Hat, and
jammed it down on his head so far it almost covered his chin.

"Another instance of someone trying to manipulate Harry by keeping
written material away from him," observed Elkins.

"They're not from Dumbledore," said Cindy in a sarcastic monotone.

"They don't have to be," retorted Elkins.  "The important part is that
Dobby was trying to alter Harry's role by keeping the letters from
him, almost an echo of what the Dursleys did to him in Philosopher's
Stone."

"The Dursleys deny him writing in this book, too," said Dicentra. 
"They won't let Hedwig out of her cage because they're afraid Harry
will send letters to his friends at 'that freak place,' as Dudley
calls it."

"See if you can find things written by Dumbledore," suggested Elkins. 

Dicentra shuffled through the pile and produced a handful of identical
envelopes addressed to Harry and the five youngest Weasleys.  "These
are the letters from Hogwarts with the list of textbooks for the next
year. They were all delivered to the Burrow, and Arthur observes that
Dumbledore knows where Harry is."

"So Dumbledore presents Harry with his new role as a second-year
student," grumbled Cindy.  "Big whoop."

"Well, sometimes a letter is just a letter," replied Dicentra.  "I
don't think this one really counts, do you think?" 

"Probably not," replied Elkins.  "See if you can find writing that
plays a larger role in Harry's life."

"There aren't any more from Dumbledore," Dicentra said slowly.  "But
here's one *for* Dumbledore." She produced a roll of parchment from
the stack.

"The order of suspension from Lucius Malfoy," said Elkins.  "Looks
like ol' Lucius is trying to write Dumbledore's role for him."

"He *did* write it," said Dicentra.  "That is, until these came
along."  She pulled out a handful of envelopes and parchment scraps. 
"I don't recognize the names of the senders, but they're all asking
Dumbledore to return to Hogwarts at once.  Which he does."

"Well, there you go," said Elkins triumphantly.  "Harry's not the only
one whose role is given to him in writing."

"No kidding," said Dicentra quietly, pulling out a small,
black-covered book with a ragged puncture hole through the center.  

"That's Tom Riddle's diary," said Cindy, sitting bolt upright.  "Get
that out of here."

"Don't worry: this is the one from the end of the book," said
Dicentra, poking her finger through the hole. "Tom's not in it anymore."

"I don't care; it creeps me out.  Get rid of it."

"Actually, Dicey, it kinda creeps me out, too," said Elkins, leaning
away from her.  "I mean, talk about having your role written for you..."

"I think this should be at the center of the exhibit," Dicentra
continued, flipping through what was left of the pages.  "Of all the
written material in the series, this diary is most emblematic of one
character trying to manipulate another by writing a role for that
character.  Poor Ginny: she just thought she had found a sympathetic
interlocutor, when in reality Tom Riddle's memory was writing her a
role she never would have consciously accepted."

"But did he tell her to open the Chamber through writing or did he
simply control her mind while she was in a trance?" Elkins asked,
still edging away from the book.

"He never explains that," said Dicentra, "but he does get her to pour
her soul out to him by telling her what she wants to hear.  I mean,
read.  So in some ways she unwittingly wrote a role for herself in the
diary, too.  And then later, Harry gets pulled in by Tom's writing,
though Tom used writing to lie to Harry about who opened the Chamber
the last time.  In both cases, it was an eerie collaboration between
innocence and evil that resulted in..."

"A lame collaboration, you mean," Cindy interrupted.  "All those
people were supposed to have been *killed* by the basilisk, but they
were only petrified, and early on we learn that they'll eventually be
healed.  Yawn!  And don't even get me started on that idiot Gilderoy
Lockhart..."

"Speaking of people who write their own roles..." Dicentra passed the
diary to Stoned!Harry, who promptly removed one of his socks and
stuffed the diary into it. "Lockhart's whole identity is contained in
his collected works. He had decided at some point that he wanted to
play the role of the fearless, famous fighter of Dark forces, but
instead of actually doing the fighting, he wrote about it, stealing
experiences from others and substituting his name for theirs."

"And because it's in writing -- published writing -- it legitimizes
his claim," Elkins added.  "Writing is often much more authoritative
than speech, especially when the writing comes between the pages of a
bound book.  People are more likely to trust what has been published
than what they merely hear."

"Exactly," Dicentra said.  "Once he had his supposed deeds published,
he could step into his role.  And once people read his books, they
played their roles as the adoring crowd, further supporting his
written, though fraudulent, role."

Dicentra paused to gather up the Lockhart books that Stoned!Harry had
summoned while she and Elkins were speaking.  She set them aside and
began to sort through the pile for Chamber of Secrets again.

"Looks like writing provides the clues to solve the central mystery
again," said Cindy, carefully.  "That page Hermione tears out of a
library book--very out of character for her, if you ask me--and the
word 'pipes' that she writes on the scrap, are what clinch it eventually."

"I guess so," said Dicentra, slowly, "but then there's what Aragog
said, what Tom Riddle showed, and what Moaning Myrtle told them.  I'd
call it pretty even between written, verbal, and visual in this case."

"Ha!" Cindy shouted.  "Writing doesn't furnish even half of the clues
to the mystery. I got you!"

"I don't know about that," said Elkins, who had been quietly thinking.
 "If we go back to the premise that Harry's role comes to him as
written cues, we can find a clearer pattern.  So far, we've identified
the letters Dobby intercepted, the Dursleys not letting Hedwig fly,
and Tom Riddle's diary..."

"Oh look," said Cindy dryly, as she pulled a handful of lilac-colored
envelopes out of the pile, the addresses written in purple ink.  "Here
are all those envelopes Harry addressed for Lockhart.  What does this
tell us?  Why, it tells us that Lockhart also assigned Harry a role...
as cheap slave labor."

Dicentra and Elkins grinned and Stoned!Harry snorted loudly from
underneath the Sorting Hat.

"Actually, Lockhart spent quite a bit of time trying to assign Harry a
role" said Elkins, chuckling, "but I don't think that was exactly it.
Lockhart's thematic role in *Chamber of Secrets* is the same as Colin
Creevey's: to present two unsavory aspects of fame.  Lockhart is the
preening, self-absorbed lover of fame, and Colin is the lover of the
famous.  Lockhart believes that he can tutor Harry in how to be
properly famous, and one of those tutoring moments is when Harry does
detention addressing those envelopes.  Harry isn't the only one
writing in that instance: Lockhart is autographing photos of himself,
something only a celebrity does.  And yet on two previous occasions,
Colin pesters Harry for an autograph and Harry flatly refuses.  I
think we can safely say that autographing photos symbolizes embracing
fame, and refusing to autograph means refusing fame.  In that simple
act of writing -- or lack thereof -- we get the essence of Harry's
attitude toward fame."

Dicentra applauded. "Well done, Elk!  Now, here are two more letters I
found while you were talking.  Filch's Kwikspell letter and Nearly
Headless Nick's letter from Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore.  In both
cases, the letters identify the recipient as someone who cannot assume
a particular role.  Nearly Headless Nick's letter tells him that he is
not qualified to join the Headless Hunt, and the Kwikspell letter
identifies Filch as a Squib.  Both Nick and Filch deeply resent the
fact that they have been excluded, and both see the letters as
evidence of their disgrace."

"There are only a few more pieces of paper left," Elkins said, picking
them up,  "but I don't know what kind of significance they have. Here
we have the letter from Mafalda Hopkirk informing Harry that they know
about the hovering charm and that if he does it again he'll be
expelled..."
"That's a set-up for later events: Harry thinks he has to assume the
role of renegade when he blows up Aunt Marge," said Dicentra. "And
then when he produces the Patronus in Order of the Phoenix, he gets a
second letter from Mafalda Hopkirk telling him he's been expelled.

"Here's Ron's Howler..." Elkins held up a red envelope sandwiched
between two panes of glass and tied tightly with about a mile of twine.

"To showing the consequences of stealing the car," Dicentra said, "but
I don't think it assigns a role."

"The note from Snape authorizing the Slytherins to use the Quidditch
pitch..."

"That is an example of the authority of written material," said
Dicentra. "Because Snape himself writes the note, it has a kind of
proxy value: it's the same as if he were standing there saying it. 
And yet it's not assigning anyone a role."

"The note from Lockhart authorizing Hermione to check out Moste
Potente Potions..."

"...same as the note from Snape.."

"A few clippings from the Daily Prophet.  This one is about Muggles
seeing the flying Ford Anglia and this other one is about Arthur
Weasley getting into trouble for bewitching it in the first place..."

"Backstory!" Cindy shouted, brandishing her Big Paddle.  "That's just
backstory -- information.  Don't even think about making it more
important than that."

"I wouldn't dream of it," said Dicentra, eyeing Cindy's paddle,
"because you're right.  In this case, that's all it is: backstory. 
But I can't promise I won't find meaning in Daily Prophet articles in
the next three books."

Cindy frowned.  "Are you done yet?" she asked Elkins.  

"Just these two scraps of parchment with the Dursley's phone number on
it." 

"And I suppose you're going to tell us that they represent Harry's
first tentative attempts to reconcile his Muggle and wizard worlds,"
Cindy said sarcastically.  

"Well, yeah," said Elkins, surprised.  "He's asking Hermione and Ron
to call.  That's more invasive than a letter."

"I just didn't want my letters to get intercepted again," said
Stoned!Harry, pulling off the Sorting Hat.  

"See," said Cindy.  "Practical function only.  No need to turn it all
into this symbolic literary crap."

"Whatever," muttered Elkins.

"You've forgotten something," Dicentra blurted out. "The writing on
the wall.  After Tom Riddle's diary, that's the most important writing
in the book."

"Oh yeah," said Elkins, her eyes glinting. "That has Biblical
overtones, too."

"Biblical?" said Cindy, eyebrows arched. "I thought it was just that
old saying about reading the writing on the wall, when you can see
you're goin' down because you're picking up on clues from the situation."

"That saying came from an incident in the Old Testament," said
Dicentra, motioning to Stoned!Harry to conjure a Bible.  "It's right
here in the book of Daniel, chapter 5.  Belshazzar, the king of
Babylon, is having a big feast with his cronies, and they're using the
sacred vessels that his father took from the temple when he conquered
Jerusalem.  Suddenly, they see a hand appear and write something on
the wall that they can't understand.  They bring in Daniel, who
interprets it.  It says, in part, 'thou art weighed in the balances
and found wanting.'  That very night, the Persians conquer Babylon."

"'Enemies of the Heir, beware,' carries a similar message," explained
Elkins. "It  also says 'You're goin' down.'  It's another example of
how Rowling borrows imagery from outside sources and makes it fit her
own needs."

"What does that have to do with assigning roles?" demanded Cindy. 

"It forces the students to think of themselves as 'pure-bloods' and
muggleborns," said Dicentra. "That's its first role-creating function.
 It also seems to put Harry in the role of bad guy, to the point that
Harry himself wonders if he is the Heir of Slytherin.  Ultimately, it
launches Harry into his inevitable role as Hero Who Saves The Day."
 
"WooHoo!" cried Elkins.  "We've made it through *Chamber of Secrets*."

"No, you haven't," said Cindy darkly. "There's one more."  She grabbed
Stoned!Harry's wand and wrote in the air: Tom Marvolo Riddle.

"Of course," said Elkins. "Tom created the name for his new identity
by manipulating the letters of his given name.  It's a unique way of
using writing to create a role."

"Can we go now?" said Cindy impatiently. 

"But there are three more books to go!" protested Elkins.

"Fine, you play with your papers; I'm going to the beach."  Cindy got
up and left the room.


**********

Continued in the next message...

**********

--Dicentra spectabilis