Flowerbed and Dumbledore (OOP)

[Cindy C. <cindysphynx@comcast.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49823

Pip predicted:

> No, no no. Harry [or Dudley] is lying in a flower bed face *up* 
> because someone or something has hit him in the face. This has 
>made him fall *backwards* into the flowerbed, landing on his back 
>with face up.

Ali challenged:

>Well, does the teenager have to be Harry?

Derannimer added:

>But since those are the *first words* of the book, and that scene 
>is the first thing we see, I'm betting it's Harry. It would be 
>weird to start the book out with Dudley. 


Well, what are the first lines of the other four books:

***********

PS/SS:  "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were 
proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

CoS:  "Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over 
breakfast at number four, Privet Drive."

PoA:  "Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways."

GoF:  "The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it "the Riddle 
House," even though it had been many years since the Riddle family 
had lived there."

OoP:  "The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close 
and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet 
Drive 
  The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was 
lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four."

**********

Aha!  JKR often starts the book off from a perspective other than 
Harry's.  

Well, do you guys want me to spoil the surprise and tell you who is 
lying in the flowerbed and why?  It could be Harry, Dudley or even 
Piers Polkiss, I suppose.  

Are you sure?  Well, OK, then.

OoP starts off with Harry having just fallen off of the roof of 
Number 4 Privet Drive.  He was assigned the task of installing 
Dudley's new satellite dish, lost his footing, and landed flat on 
his back in the flowerbed.

You're welcome!  ;-)

But then there is this:

*************


"Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-
moon glasses.  

`It is time,' he said, `for me to tell you what I should have told 
you five years ago, Harry.  

Please sit down.  I am going to tell you everything.'"


Oh, I know what is going on here as well.  The key is Dumbledore 
lowering his hands.  Why would Dumbledore have his hands up, do you 
think?

The answer is that Dumbledore has just used the Put-Outer to remove 
the protection surrounding Harry on Privet Drive (or to install the 
protection somewhere else)!  In PS/SS, Dumbledore takes out the Put-
Outer, "flicked it open, *held it up in the air,* and clicked it."  
So in OoP, Dumbledore uses the Put-Outer in Harry's presence, lowers 
his hands, and then spills his guts to Harry.

Remember, you heard it here first.  ;-)

Cindy -- who thinks Dumbledore will deliver his lines at the end of 
a chapter