Sirius' Mirror

[linda_mccabe]

No: HPFGUIDX 87490

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, helenhorsley at h... wrote:
> cubs9911 wrote:
> > I was wondering today what the purpose 
> > will be of the mirror that Sirius gave to Harry.  
> > I wonder if anyone thinks that Harry will need 
> > this sometime in the future.  He never got a 
> > chance to use it and I dont think that JKR would 
> > put it there for no other reason than for Harry to 
> > regret never using it. Any ideas.
> 
> Now dorapye:
> I assumed the mirror was actually just a plot device, to present 
> an 'if only...' to the reader. *If only* Harry had opened the 
> present earlier, had used it to contact Sirius after the vision of 
> LV torturing him in the DoM...then he would have been able to see 
> Sirius was at home, perfectly safe, tending the injured Buckbeak; 
he 
> would have evaded the treacherous Kreacher, not have had to use 
> Umbridge's fireplace, not have been caught by the evil old hag, 
not 
> have nearly killed his best friends in his mercy mission to rescue 
> his godfather and not have lost Sirius for good...if only he had 
not 
> forgotten Sirius's present, it all might have been avoided and 
> Sirius might still be alive...
> 

Athena:

That was my reaction.  I felt like it was there to be done to yank 
tears from the reader, but as for me - it made me livid.  I thought 
it was a terrible prop that did not fulfill its purpose.  That's 
because I don't think it works with the characterization of Sirius 
Black.

First off, if Sirius had such a magical device he wouldn't have 
given it to Harry in the manner in which he did.  He knew that the 
owl post and the Floo network was being monitored at Hogwarts.  
There was no other way that the two of them could safely 
communicate.  If the two way mirror worked the way that Sirius said 
it did, then he would have given it to Harry and said, "Ten o'clock 
tonight, find a safe secluded place and call out my name.  We'll 
talk everynight and I'll even see if I can't help you a bit with 
your homework."

Later when Harry went through the trouble of contacting Sirius by 
Umbridge's fire, he should have said, "Harry, why didn't you just 
use the mirror I gave you?  I mean, I think risks are fun and all, 
but I did give you something so you could talk with me."

I just thought it was a terrible, terrible prop that I don't think 
will come to bear later on like the gift knife from Sirius did. I do 
wonder however how Snape was able to safely communicate with members 
of the OotP after he learned from Harry about Sirius being "taken 
captive."  Did they also have two way mirrors? 


Anyway, as a reader and lover of drama I categorically reject that 
prop.  I do not think it follow Chekhov's Gun rule and instead I 
think it violates it.  (I know, how much longer would the book have 
been if we saw Harry talking with Sirius every night.  But at least 
then we might have gotten to see Sirus giving Harry "The Talk."  Now 
who's going to do it?  Lupin?  Arthur?  Uncle Vernon? :shudders:

Athena