Who conjures the Prongs Patronus?

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 53306

Norm wrote:

<snip lots of canon>

>Well, if Harry's thoughts are confused, so are mine. In the first
>excerpt, JKR seems to make it clear that Harry's Patronus has failed.
>But then, after he's conjured the stag Patronus to (apparently) save
>himself, Harry says he did it before. When? Did he do it before to
>escape from the dementors (as "Harry #1"), or did he do it before
>from the other bank of the lake (as "Harry #2")? Yikes!

Harry1 tried to cast a Patronus. It was weak partially because he couldn't 
find a happy enough thought which would give it power. Another reason it 
was weak was because of Harry's usual lack of confidence in his own 
abilities. Harry1 sees Harry2 (assuming it's James) cast a very powerful 
Patronus. Later on, Harry2 realises (partially because of where he's 
standing) that it wasn't James but himself. His Patronus is powerful 
*mainly* because Harry knows he can do it. He doesn't *think* he can do it, 
he *KNOWS* he can do it, because when he was Harry1, he already saw himself 
(Harry2) do it! The thing is, Harry2 *is* Harry1, only a little more 
experienced and well-informed, and a little wiser. Casting a powerful 
Patronus was inevitable, because he'd seen it happen.

By the time he has the conversation with Dumbledore, he's sorted out what 
was going on in his own head, so when he says that he'd "done it before", 
he had, quite literally, done it before. :-)

Or, to quote Chief Miles O'Brien in a particular episode of Deep Space Nine 
in which he meets himself 5 hours into his future: "I hate temporal 
mechanics!" (well, both of them say it simultaneously). :-)

>Then, when Dumbledore says "Prongs rode again last night," JKR says
>it took Harry a moment to realize what Dumbledore had said. But what
>is he saying here, exactly? Is he saying that what Harry saw across
>the lake was a vision of his father -- appearing to him in time of
>need -- and that he was thus inspired to come up with the strong
>Patronus? Or is he saying "this is why your Patronus is the shape it
>is" and not addressing the question of how Harry got out of the
>initial confrontation?

What Harry realises is simply that, as Dumbledore explains in his very next 
sentence, Dumbledore knows that Prongs was his dad's alias and his Animagus 
form. Bear in mind that up to that moment, he did not know that Sirius had 
told Dumbledore that MWPP had learned how to become Animagi.

As to the form of Harry's Patronus, Dumbledore admits that Prongs' shape is 
"unusual". We can only speculate at this point as to what form for a 
Patronus would be considered "normal" (I expect this is a detail we will 
find out!), but I have a suspicion that in view of the word's etymological 
links to the Latin for "father", a "usual" Patronus form would be... one's 
father. The thing is, Prongs *is* Harry's father, and thus whilst unusual 
to those who know what form a Patronus *should* take, it's by no means 
unexpected if one knows that James was an Animagus.

I hope that dispels some of your questions.

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who adores JKR's way of skirting the issue of temporal 
paradoxes by not allowing them to happen. :-)