Hyperbolic Chapter Titles and Snape's worst memory

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 82206

Golly wrote:

> When Rowling says something point blank 
> about a character, like hair colour, I believe it.

Not any more we don't.  Unregistered metamorphmagus, anyone?

The point being that something that, for four books, is almost 
unfailingly noted as a sort of signature tune for each character 
suddenly becomes mutable and relative in the fifth book.

More generally, we have IMO an almost overwhelming weight of 
evidence that one of JKR's favourite tricks is to create a great 
degree of certainty about something, and then to start to undermine 
it.

>  Same is true 
> about any point blank given information. 

Surely it's when JKR looks us with her big blue eyes and says "would 
I lie to you?" that we should most be on our guard?

Personally, I find it suits my interpretation of the Pensieve scene 
that it really *is* Snape's worst memory: any misdirection concerns 
what *aspect* of that scene makes it the worst.  However, it seems 
to me perfectly consistent with the narration for there to turn out 
to be a still worse memory - say, seeing a fellow DE killed by 
Voldemort because V blames him for something Snape has done in his 
capacity as spy, because we can read the title as Harry's POV.

David