foreshadowings in CoS

[asandhp]

No: HPFGUIDX 53284

Hello all. I've not exactly been lurking for the last year. Rather 
Yahoomort doesn't like my server and keeps bouncing my posts. At 
least the digests keep arriving. Let's see if this route works.

CoS seems to be 90% foreshadowing, and I'll explain a bit about why I 
think so toward the end of this post, but for the meantime - the 
predictions:

End of CoS: Harry tells Dobby (paraphrase), "Just promise me never to 
save my life again." The obvious conclusion is that there's going to 
be some super-critical scene in book 6/7 where the only one who can 
save Harry's life is Dobby, and Dobby says (paraphrase): "But Dobby 
promised, sir, never to save Harry Potter's life, sir." Then Harry 
has to get around this, and learns - major moral lessons number 
umpteen and umpteen-and-one - (1) that one should never be ungrateful 
for other people's attempts to do favors, no matter how misguided 
their attempts, and (2) that one should be super careful with one's 
words.

In CoS we learn: Dobby is in possession of Malfoy secrets, and is 
super-loyal to Harry. Very likely conclusion: They'll go sneaking 
around Malfoy Manor together to collect clues.

CoS not only introduces Polyjuice but also the fact that animal parts 
mess up the potion in specific ways. Possible followup: The animal 
variation may well be used again for good or for ill.

Moaning Myrtle and Polyjuice have returned, and are due to return 
some more, so that's obvious. But I think it's clear that Aragog will 
surely return, too, as will the Weasley's car, and play important 
supporting roles. Otherwise, what did we need them for? Also, I 
highly believe that on some future occasion, Harry will again be 
loyal to Dumbledore and get the aid of Fawkes and the Sorting Hat.

The mandrake remedy may come in useful again. As for remedies, I 
wonder if the bezoar Harry heard of his first day in potions will 
ever be needed. Keep your eyes open for a goat!

The whole interrogation of Draco which goes nowhere seems to my mind 
to be a setup so that later in the series Draco will indeed be a 
culprit and they will discount the possibility of his guilt, because 
they had "been there, done that." Not that I think Draco will be 
particularly Evil or connected to the DEs. Personally, I think he'll 
try to do some moderate something independently of everyone, 
to "prove" to his father that he's not a complete loser; then his rig 
will backfire and his father and V will be extremely angry at him. 
Probably he'll overhear his father saying how great it would be if 
such-and-such happened, and then Draco will go and do it and botch 
everything for both sides.

Harry's visit to Dumbledore's office in CoS is most peculiar. Nothing 
at all happens except foreshadowing - we learn that Fawkes can carry 
heavy weights and that his tears heal, that the Sorting Hat has a 
life beyond the first day of each year, and what else? These are 
useful facts for the climax of CoS, but there must be more to the 
scene or JK was being quite sleepy when she wrote it. Any of those 
facts could have been slipped in in a better way. Granted, the whole 
series is desiged around moral lessons, and this teaches one - "Be 
open with your headmaster" - but still, nowhere else does she write a 
whole scene whose main purpose is to teach such a lesson. Everywhere 
else, her moral educating is brilliantly deft (I'll save expounding 
for another time). So I fully hope that some major clue will develop 
out of that scene - or else I will write JK in fifteen years, when 
her mailbag is finally empty, to complain about sloppy writing.

Harry being a Parselmouth, which Dumbledore "thinks" "might be" 
because V passed on some powers. And Harry's TM Riddle recognition in 
Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. And Snape's "look" at Harry when he talks 
to the snake at the duel. And Riddle's comments about the two of them 
having lots in common. - I have a bomb of a theory about these, which 
I'm afraid to share because if it's true it would truly spoil the 
rest of the series for everybody. On the other hand, I'd hate for 
someone else to post it first. Mods and fans - what do you suggest I 
do?
 
Now for the principles behind these speculations: Looking at PS/SS, 
not a single line is wasted. Every piece of plot to the last twist 
has a narrative function. Even CoS shows great economy in many 
places. I particularly like the scene with Dobby in the hospital 
wing, followed by Colin being brought in. It's typical of the 
extremely tight, smooth transitions that make the series an 
irresistible page turner, even with the very mild, innocent suspense 
of PS/SS. So anything which JK writes that could be written more 
economically is either (1) foreshadowing, or (2) nodding off on the 
job.

Now, I am a great believer that JK did nod off a few times, or 
rather, get pressured by deadlines to leave quite a bit unfinished 
and un-tied-up. She's only human, after all. And she's reported 
having had writer's block while writing CoS, and she got the book out 
in a year, so she could certainly have slipped up over a few scenes, 
particularly the one in Dumbledore's office that I mentioned above.
 
But Dobby, for example, is a perfect case of heavy foreshadowing. On 
the one hand, he is too woven in to the book to be a nod-job. But on 
the other hand, he is completely superfluous, narrative functionally. 
At the Dursley's, he serves to get Harry in trouble with the MoM and 
locked in his room. This could have been done very easily without 
him. He also steals Harry's mail. No need for a house-elf for that. 
Later, he blocks the gate to 9 3/4. This could have been done dozens 
of other ways, and could even have been skipped. The only *functions* 
served by the car trip are (1) to get H&R in trouble with Snape [no 
news], (2) to get them detention, so Harry can spend time with 
Lockhart, and so Ron can see Riddle's cup [small potatoes], (3) to 
get the Weasley's car to Hogwarts [potentially important]. Let's say 
the gate-locking and car-transporting were necessary for that last 
reason. But getting the Weasley's car to Hogwarts could certainly 
have been accomplished without Dobby.
 
Later, Dobby sends his rogue bludger. What for (narrative 
functionally)? So Lockhart can remove his bones? What for? So Harry 
can be in the hospital wing and hear Dumbledore say "The chamber has 
been opened...."? Let's say that all this was necessary. But Harry 
could have gotten hospitalized without Dobby. He's done it plenty of 
times before and since. Finally, the last scene with Dobby. What's 
Dobby doing there? To clue Harry in that Lucius is at fault for the 
diary. Again, this could be accomplished without a house-elf. 
Certainly, it doesn't need a house-elf who's tried to kill/save Harry 
all year. And who then gets freed thanks to Harry. 
 
What's going on? The *only* answer that fits all this plot-working is 
that it is expressly designed to work up to that last line where 
Harry gets Dobby to promise not to save his life. For that line to 
happen, you need someone to try to save your life and also to try to 
kill you in the process. That kind of someone has to be somewhat 
weird (house-elf), and has to have a motive (an informed Malfoy house-
elf). Everything else is just manipulations to work this weird-person-
with-motive into the story, so that three books later, the climax can 
happen where Dobby won't save Harry because he promised not to. 
Otherwise, nothing makes narrative-functional sense. And JK's proven 
herself a master of narrative function.

If I had the patience, I could go through PS/SS and show the complete 
narrative functionality of everything there. But that's for another 
time.

Meanwhile, looking at CoS, it is extremely full of loose and dead 
ends. Most of what's in there serves *no* narrative function within 
the book. Polyjuice goes nowhere - it's a dead end. Aragog is the 
same. The removal of Hagrid and Dumbledore don't produce any 
noticeable results except mood. The Deathday party goes nowhere - 
Myrtle could have been met later and Harry could have missed any old 
dinner, rather than the feast, as indeed happens in the movie. The 
Valentine day stuff leads only to Ginny's revelation that Harry has 
Riddle's diary - a rather loose bit of plotting (also dropped from 
the movie). The Ron-eating-slugs part is a very talky, not forward-
moving chapter, full of info but no plot. The dueling club meets for 
one session and disappears. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy, unless it's all 
about foreshadowing.

Like I wrote above, I'm ready to credit much of this to 
foreshadowing, but not all. I think the slugs chapter, the deathday 
party, and the dueling club are truly sloppy. I think if JK had had 
more time, she should have put some follow-up to the dueling club 
itself, let it continue throughout the year, in the background, or 
wind it down some other way, not have it show up as useful flash to 
teach about Parseltongue and expelliarmus and then disappear. 
Likewise the Deathday party should link into something. I can't think 
too highly of the end of the Polyjuice episode either - the idea that 
Hermione got into no trouble with the staff makes zero sense. They 
saw her missing from classes and have free access to the hospital 
wing. The only reason she could have escaped trouble is that JK at 
the time was afraid of writing too long a book and just dropped the 
subject. (Happily, she's learned better.)

But Aragog, the Weasley car, Hagrid's and Dumbledore's removal and 
some of the other things I mentioned work very well as 
foreshadowings, which saves JK from being a completely sloppy writer 
when under pressure. (But then, we all know that! :))

So there you have it. Some of my ruminations of the past year, and I 
hope that Yahoo and the mods get this through this time.

The Admiring Skeptic