Luna and the ghost world

[Michal]

No: HPFGUIDX 70893

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Cezar T <drymusalastor at y...> 
wrote:
> <snip>
> There is a kind of a reference to the Thestrals in PoA:
> 
> "Harry, Ron and Hermione followed the rest of the school out onto a 
rough mud track, where at least a hundred stagecoaches awaited the 
remaining students, each pulled, Harry could only assume, by an 
invisible horse..." UK edition, p.68
> 
> This is the first time Harry travelles by the Hogwarts carriages. 
Obviously, he only assumes that there are invisible horses but this 
may indicate that JKR had the idea back then. She may decided about 
the specifics of the horses only when writing OOP but I think she 
knew from the beginning that the carriages are pulled by invisible 
horses.
> 
> Just a thought,
> 
> Monika

Actually, something I was noticing a lot in OoP was that Rowling very 
carefully uses the word, "assume" when she is trying to mislead us. 
Whenever Harry assumes something, it always seems to be otherwise. 
Now, this is just a sense I've gotten, because I've only read OoP 
twice, and being unemployed, well, I'm just too busy lounging about 
the house and reading this list to go through the book and find 
*canon evidence* for this thought. But well, I remember 
thinking "aha! *assume!*" several times throughout my second read.

This theory also applies to the word, "seem". If something seems to 
be one thing, it's usually otherwise.

:)
Michal
-Arthur Weasley for Minister of Magic