The Sneakoscope (WAS: Re: Occam's Razor, Lupin/James and the Shiver)

[sevenhundredandthirteen <sevenhundredandthirteen@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49400

Barb wrote:

>As we are told that a Sneak-O-Scope goes
>off when there is someone about who cannot be trusted (the twins, in 
the case
>above) and since Moody's Sneak-O-Scope (it probably really is 
Moody's, not
>Crouch's) is going off when Harry is in his office, we should have 
suspected
>that there was something up with Moody. It was the logical 
conclusion; we
>certainly know that Harry wasn't the untrustworthy one present.

According to my copy of GoF, Moody's Sneakoscope *doesn't* go off at 
all when Harry is in his office. In fact, it's deactivated. 

Excerpt from Chapter 20 'The First Task' goes as such:

"Now, however, the office was full of a number of exceptionally odd 
objects that Harry supposed Moody had used in the days when he had 
been an Auror.
On his desk stood what looked like a large, cracked, glass spinning 
top. Harry recognised it at once as a Sneakoscope, because he owned 
one himself, though it was much smaller than Moody's.... <it goes on 
to describe the other Dark Detectors>
'...I had to disable my Sneakoscope because it wouldn't stop 
whistling. It's extra sensitive, picks up stuff about a mile around. 
Of course, it could be picking up more than kids' stuff,' he added in 
a growl."

This section clearly shows that he's got it turned off. There is no 
mention of it whistling at all.

Perhaps you are confusing this scene with the one on the train going 
to Hogwarts in PoA.
In that scene, Harry, Hedwig, Hermione, Crookshanks, Ron, Scabbers 
and Lupin are all in the same compartment. Harry's Pocket Sneakoscope 
goes off. On a first reading, the reader assumes that it's because 
Lupin is untrustworthy- after all, why should it go off for Harry, 
Hermione, Ron or any of their pets? Of course, after reading the 
whole book, you realise it was going off because Scabbers was in the 
compartment. 

Harry's Pocket Sneakoscope also goes off in his dorm with 
Ron/Scabbers present. This is in Chapter 11 'The Firebolt' when Harry 
and Ron are unwrapping their presents and Hermione comes in with 
Crookshanks. In this instance everyone who was present in the train 
compartment was there, except Professor Lupin and Hedwig. This rules 
out Lupin (and Hedwig) as being the untrustworthy ones that set off 
the Sneakocope (as it still goes off without them present).  The 
readers goes to the next likely conclusion- it was Crookshanks, who, 
apart from being a bit unusual was chasing Scabbers at the moment.

When I was reading the book, at first I suspected Lupin (as he was 
the only new character present) and later, after Lupin was portrayed 
as an honest and noble character, suspected Crookshanks (as he does, 
after all, try to 'eat' Scabbers quite frequently), which, I presume, 
was exactly how JKR wanted me to think. After one makes those 
conclusions, when Scabber's true identity is revealed you go 'Oh!' 
and everything falls into place. Ahh, the wonders of JKR's writing 
abilities... ;D

~<(Laurasia)>~