Some Discrepancies

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 86371

> greatlit2003 wrote:
> 
> > In the first book, when Harry looks into the Mirror of Erised and 
> > sees his family, he sees his parents and other ancestors, 
> > including "other pairs of green eyes" like his own. A few lines 
> > later, JKR writes that the *Potters* waved at Harry out of the 
> > mirror. The green eyes are a connection between Harry and his 
> > mother, and some of the people in the mirror are clearly members of 
> > the Evans family
> 
> <snip>
> 
> Constance Vigilance (me):
> 
> It is important to remember that the Mirror represents only the 
> viewers "heart's desires". There is no verification that anything 
> that appears in the mirror is true, in fact, my guess is that things 
> viewed in the mirror are _rarely_ true. Dumbledore claims that were 
> he to look in the mirror, he would see himself with socks. The 
> inferrence is that he doesn't have enough socks, so the mirror is not 
> reflecting truth. He further says that men have wasted away in front 
> of that mirror. If those men were seeing truth, they would be out 
> living it, not pining away wishing for what they don't have.
> 
> In the case of Harry's desires showing lots of people with green 
> eyes, it only reflects his _desire_ that he had lots of relatives on 
> his mother's side. Similarly, that he had lots of relatives with his 
> knobby knees. I think we can make no further conclusion based on 
> that. We certainly cannot conclude that Lily's family is magical 
> based on this input.
> 
> Constance Vigilance


I don't agree. The faces of his father and mother were their real
faces. Probably the other faces were real as well, and indicate that
Harry does have a family history even if he doesn't have much of a
family. His desire was to be back with his family, but he had in mind
only his parents. The mirror showed him his extended family (possibly
members of his father's family as well), expanding on his desire with
a reflection of the family he would have had if they weren't all dead. 

JKR has promised to show the significance of green eyes in future
books. She has also promised to tell us what happened to Harry's
grandparents. Just as the handsome, smiling young man in the
photograph of Harry's parents' wedding comes back into the story in a
surprising way, I think those green-eyed relatives and the
knobby-kneed old man (clearly a Potter ;-) ) will turn out to be
significant.

I very much doubt that the mirror made those things up out of thin air
or Harry's imagination, which has not been focusing on earlier
generations. They are based on real people whose lives will somehow
intersect with Harry's even though they're dead.

Carol