Perversion in the Graveyard/Nick

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 71169

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Melinda Leydon 
<melindaleo at m...> wrote:

> I remember reading GOF and "rape" was never the word that came to 
mind, but
> certainly a violation.  There was something creepy and just "wrong" 
about
> the whole thing and I remember it bothering me for some time. 

 I had hoped
> to see more emotional "punch" from this when OotP came out and when 
it
> started, I thought we would.  Towards the very beginning he tells 
himself
> "Don't think about that" and yet again pushes it from his mind.  
Though he'd
> been having screaming nightmares at the Dursleys, we never hear 
about it
> after he joins the others or goes back to school.
> 
> When Hermione brings Rita Skeeter to the Hogs Head and wants Harry 
to give
> his story, I remember being taken aback.  I thought Harry would 
rave at her,
> and even feel betrayed.  He had, up to this point, refused to even 
talk
> about it.  When he and Umbridge had their first battle, the rest of 
the
> class was quiet and avidly listening because no one had ever heard 
Harry
> talk about this before.  It struck me as very odd that all of a 
sudden he'd
> just tell the world.  I wish we'd seen the interview.  He said Rita 
pushed
> him for every detail, but did that include his parents coming out of
> Voldemorts wand? Does everyone now know that Harry and Voldemort 
wands won't
> work against each other?
> 
> Did anyone else feel this was odd?

I didn't really think about it.  I felt JKR gave indications on 
Harry's distress over the graveyard scene, although they didn't 
strike me as particularly powerful.  But, I wonder if that isn't sort 
of a form of short-hand to indicate that Harry is indeed very 
bothered, but we're not going to see that plainly in the prose over 
and over again.  

In the scene with Umbridge, I got the feeling that Harry was simply 
fed up and started talking almost in spite of himself. 

Harry has now been deeply wounded by Sirius' death. We'll have to see 
if JKR handles Harry's reactions over the summer any differently. I 
wonder if she is already sending Harry on a 100-yard dash through the 
stages of grief.  He had immediate denial at the time of the death, 
and showed anger in Dumbledore's office. I don't think we've seen 
bargaining, depression and acceptance yet. As someone who suffered a 
great loss as a teen, I'm interested to see how Harry's reactions are 
portrayed.

As far as Harry telling all about the graveyard scene, you're right, 
that does seem to be a big step.  Did he describe the entire 
procedure about Voldemort's rebirth? Do people now believe that Peter 
Pettigrew is alive, just because Harry says so, if indeed he 
mentioned Peter by name? How much detail was in that article?


> I have one more unrelated question, but I thought I'd add it.  When 
Harry
> goes to Nick to question him about death, Nick expected it.  How 
did he know
> that the death of Sirius would be a loss to Harry?  Is that public 
knowledge
> now?  I don't remember reading anything that said Sirius was 
cleared?

NOthing was said about Sirius being cleared. After the battle at the 
MoM Dumbledore told Fudge he could spare half an hour to tell him 
what happened.  I want to know what he said. Did he reiterate that 
Vmort was back?  Did he talk about the prophecy? Did he mention the 
existence of OoP? Did he also mention that Sirius was part of that 
group and died by going though the veil? If, during this brief 
conversation, Dumbledore mentioned Sirius' innocence, would Fudge 
believe him with no obvious proof?  There's still no Pettigrew and 
Sirius is not around to be questioned.

Also, when Hermione is reading the Daily Prophet discussions in the 
Hospital I don't believe she mentions anything about Sirius.  So, I'm 
going under the assumption that he has not been formerly cleared, if 
indeed his presence at the MoM is even known by anyone other than the 
people who were there with him.

Which brings us back to Nick.  He certainly did seem unsurprised that 
Harry sought him out. I suppose it's possible that there's been talk 
among the un-live denizens of Hogwarts about what happened. 
Certainly, all of the Headmaster portraits in Dumbledore's office 
know Sirius is dead. Or maybe Dumbledore himself said something to 
Nick, figuring that it might occur to Harry that Sirius could come 
back as a ghost and he'd go talk to the Gryffindor ghost.  

Nick also seemed pretty sure that Sirius had already "moved on" 
beyond the stage where wizards can choose to become ghosts. How does 
he know that?  But, he also said he didn't have a lot of knowledge of 
the dead, as he was stuck in his ghost form, so I think Nick can only 
give us partial answers.

Marianne