Mirror images

[Barry Arrowsmith]

No: HPFGUIDX 95633

This a re-vamp of a post I made last year with additions and a few 
modifications. First time around there were no firm conclusions 
reached; not many this time either, but it may give somebody else 
encouragement to come up with something new.

That Mirror. Most fans think it lies, after all didn't DD say that 
"This mirror will  give us  neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted 
away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, 
not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible." The Sky TV of 
the WW.

It shows desires, says so on the label, and DD  suspects that Harry's 
desires are becoming compulsive and perhaps unhealthy. Time to warn him 
off. Seems eminently reasonable, until you recall that this is JKR 
we're dealing with; all may not be as straightforward as it seems at 
first sight.

If, as advertised, it shows you what you want, how can this be a lie? 
It would only lie if it showed you what you didn't desire most.

No, I think DD was worried, that there was a danger that he would see 
something he shouldn't. The past can be a dangerous place, especially 
for those that have already written the history books.

Suppose for example he had  wanted to know what had happened to his 
parents? Oops! what a can of worms that might have opened. Or if he  
had followed Ron's example and looked to the future instead of the 
past? That could have resulted in severe  intestinal upsets for both 
himself and DD. Just because you desire something doesn't rule it out; 
Ron saw himself as a super-star, pride of the Weasleys. Not a likely 
option back in Book 1. But by Book 5 he's a Prefect and Quidditch hero. 
(Odd really; the way Ron has been written you'd have expected money to 
be in the picture somewhere.)

But Harry looks in the mirror and sees a motley collection of folk, 
fronted by his parents. There's not  much indication if he's looking at 
representatives of both families or only one, but the Evans's are at 
least represented - there's a scattering of green eyes among the crowd. 
Obviously he's entranced, can't get enough of it, but after 3 visits DD 
drops by and calls a halt, letting Harry  know that he's aware of his 
previous visits (and incidentally telling him that DD can become 
invisible without artificial aids - useful information, that) and 
extracting a promise that Harry eschews mirror-gazing in future. 
Depressingly, once again Harry doesn't ask the obvious questions - "Who 
  are all these people?" would have been nice, might have cleared up a 
few problems. Noses were prominent among the crowd. Hmm. Petunia and 
James have noses worthy of mention, but there again so does Snape. A 
bit more detail would have been helpful.

OK, all well and good. But Harry has learned something important that 
he would not otherwise have known - he's learned what the mirror is and 
what it does.

Fast forward to the climax of the book. Harry is in the clutches of the 
Turbaned Terror, who's throwing a wobbler because he can't find the 
Stone. Why on earth should he think that Harry knows how to find it? 
Why put Harry in front of the mirror? And why would Harry's most 
fervent desire be to find the Stone? Much more likely that it would be 
"Help! Get me out of here!"
So what's going on?

DD is pulling a fast one, that's what.

At the end of PS / SS DD is doing what is now accepted as the 
traditional final scene of pulling the wool over Harry's eyes, hiding 
where the bodies are buried and re-writing the past to fit his needs.

"I'm glad you asked me that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas, and 
between you and me, that's saying something. You see, only one who
wanted to *find* the Stone - find it, but not use it - would be able to 
get it, otherwise they'd just see themselves making gold or drinking 
Elixir of Life.
But no more questions."

Pause a moment, wasn't that what Quirrell was up to? Finding the Stone? 
He had no intention of using it - "I see the Stone...I'm presenting it 
to my master...but where is it?"

The most significant part of DD's spiel was the last four words - "But 
no more questions."

This goes back to a post a couple of days back, when I told Carolyn 
that I believed the Stone had much more protection than we actually 
saw.

Consider the protective gauntlet that had been cobbled together by the 
staff. Not exactly fearsome, is it? Nothing a smart wizard couldn't 
cope with, as Quirrell proved. After all, if three 11 year old 
untrained students can do it...

The really important protection was DD's. And it couldn't have been the 
spell he tells Harry about otherwise Quirrell would have got the Stone. 
I'm wondering if the mirror didn't have a built-in alarm system that 
told DD  when someone was using it. Could be that's how he knew Harry 
was mooning in front of it previously.

The mirrors in the WW communicate; some speak to you and if Sirius is 
to be believed, some you can speak through, to communicate with others. 
Erised may  be something else, a mirror that shows what others want you 
to see. But isn't that a contradiction of what DD told Harry, you cry? 
Not if you're devious. The inscription on the mirror is in 
'mirror-writing'. It should be read from the other side of the mirror. 
It may show desires, but not those of those that look into it, it's 
those projected by whoever is on the other side of it.

Kneasy








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