Kreacher: Prophet, Plotter or Pawn?

[iris_ft]

No: HPFGUIDX 86894

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> bboy_mn:
> 
> I've always said the best lie is the truth selectively told.
> 
> Kreacher said 'Master', meaning Sirius, will not return from the 
Dept.
> of Mysteries, which is true because at the moment he said 
it 'Master'
> was upstairs tending to Buckbeak. You can't return from a place 
that
> you aren't at.
> 
> So, Kreacher spoke the true, but he spoke is selectively and with
> malicious intent. He spoke the truth but did so in a way that 
carried
> and implication that was the exact opposite of the true.

In baroque literature (and the HP books share many aspects with 
it), "misleading with the truth" is a very appreciated stylistic 
device. I'm glad you pointed it out concerning what Kreacher tells 
Harry. And I wonder whether there are not many other examples in the 
rest of the series. I'm at the moment unable to prove it, but I have 
the feeling that JKR plays the same game with her readers, and that 
she already gave us the key of the whole series in one of the books, 
maybe the very first one. It's there but we don't understand it. 
Well, I think that I will re-read one more time Harry Potter and the 
Philosopher's Stone...

Amicalement,

Iris