The Timing of Lupin WAS - 'That Night'- Fudge After the Fact

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 109273

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt"
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <asian_lovr2 at y...> wrote:
> > 
> > Asian_lovr2:
> > 
> > Let's take a closer look at that quote-
> > 
> > ---- Quote - Am Ed HB pg 65-66 ----
> > ... but Fudge went out to Azkaban THE NIGHT Black escaped. The 
> > guards told Fudge that Black's been talking in his sleep for a 
> > while now. ..."
> > - - - End Quote - - -
> > 
> > ..., Fudge went to Azkanban /the night/ Sirius escaped BECAUSE 
> > Sirius escape. That night was after the fact.
> > 


> Kneasy:
> 
> Back to  semantics and grammatical construction, I'm afraid.
> 
> "Black's been talking.." is the key I think.
> 
> I would read this as "Black has been talking" the implication being
> that it is a continuing activity.
> 
> If Black were no longer in residence then I'd expect it to be 
> written "Black had been talking".
> ...
> 
> Kneasy

Asian_lovr2:

You might be right if we could assume that people, and more important
Mr. Weasley, speak with technical perfection, but they don't. 

There is a difference between the narative part and actual speech in
any book. If JKR is a good writer, we would indeed expect narative to
adhere to properly applied English, but in natural speech, it's pretty
much anything goes, as long as it's consistent with the character. 

I don't personally find it all that uncommon or out of place for
Arthur to say "...Black's been talking..." which we assume means
'Black has been talking'. Especially when it is the guards speaking
and the time proximity is the very night Black escaped and perhaps
only minutes from that escape. 

Really, it's just a thought.

Steve/asian_lovr2