CoS scene.

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 80298

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "severusbook4" 
<severusbook4 at y...> wrote:
> 
> I seem to remember the JKR insisted on the Knockturn Alley scene, 
> with Harry in the store, being left in the film.  I also think it 
> has something to do with Harry's hands, the hand of Glory grabbed 
> him in this scene, and there was not any other reason to have this 
> in the film.  The conversation between Malfoy and the store keep 
> didn't happen, but the hand scene did.  


Jen:

I ran across this quote from JKR in a 2000 interview with Larry King:

"But there's a small percentage of the stuff in books that is my 
modification of what people used to believe was true. For example, 
there is an object in the second book, which is the Hand of Glory. 
This is very macabre, but people used to believe in Europe that, if 
you cut off the hand of a hanged man, it would make a perpetual torch 
that gave light only to the holder, which is a creepy, you know -- 
but a wonderful idea. So I used that. That's a very ancient idea. I 
didn't invent the Hand of Glory."

My theory is the Hand of Glory will play again and that the Knockturn 
Alley scene was the one JKR insisted on keeping in. My first thought 
when reading that quote was *Wormtail*! 

Who better to be the "hanged man"? Maybe not literally yet, but as 
Sirius said, Pettigrew has nowhere to go. His old friends and the 
Order won't take him back, and Voldemort may have no use for him now 
that he's back to full power. 

 I think JKR's use of the myth won't be exactly as the one above. 
Rather than Pettigrew's cut-off hand, he will use his "silvery" new 
hand in an act of mercy towards Harry, or in some way to impede 
Voldemort. (That's not a new theory around here, but the above 
interview seems to give it some weight).