foreshadowings in CoS

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 53303

The Admiring Skeptic wrote:

<snip>

>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.

<snip some more>

I agree with most of your reasoning, and indeed conclusions, except for 
your comments on Dobby's role (which was the major element of your post 
anyway). There's only one small fly in the ointment: Dobby does *NOT* make 
any promise not to save Harry ever again. Harry asks (or rather, tells) him 
to promise, but both in the book and the MTSNBN, Dobby's only reaction is a 
big smile. Whilst this could conceivably be considered acquiescence, it 
could just as likely be a very sly way of getting around making the promise.

In any event, whilst not exactly "saving Harry's life", Dobby does do lots 
of things for Harry in GoF, including providing the way for him to 
accomplish the Second Task, which Harry may well consider to have been a 
life-saving move.

In any case, whilst I agree that JKR *could* have found several ways to 
accomplish the various plot turns Dobby and his actions provide, she 
didn;t. Having Dobby provide them all is a way of getting from A to B to C 
narratively without *too* many side plots, of which there are too much in 
the book anyway, as you say.

--
GulPlum AKA RIchard, who doesn't expect Polyjuice to be a major plot point 
again, but absolutely expects a return trip to Aragog's hollow.