Harry's Eyesight

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 91408

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "carrilynne" <carrilynne at s...> 
wrote:

Carri:
> In the scene at MofM after Voldemort flees, "Harry opened his eyes, 
> saw his glasses lying at the heel of the headless statue... He put 
> them on and raised his head an inch to find Dumbledore's crooked 
> nose inches from his own." (pg.816US)
> When did his glasses fall off?  Did Voldemort's possession cause 
> them to fall or did Harry's fall make them fall off?  Even in this 
> case, it appears that Voldemort possessed Harry while Harry still 
> had his glasses on.
> 
> On a different note, why did Harry not see Dumbledore until he put 
> his glasses on?  He was INCHES away from Harry's nose.  If Harry 
> only lifed his head an INCH, then Dumbledore was already somewhere 
> in his range of vision before putting his glasses on.  This appears 
> to be another hint to the identity of Dumbledore.  Or can Harry 
only 
> see the Magic world if he has his glasses on?

Geoff:
Can I first apologise if I repeat things that have been already said. 
I have just returned from a holiday in Malta and have managed to keep 
up with about 800 messages which have gone through by skimming 
through them while using a hotel with an Internet cafe - the Maltese 
Internet connections can be a bit of a battle at times - and whizzing 
through several screenfulls after returning home, so I haven't 
followed threads as closely as I would usually.

On this question of Harry's glasses, we are not specifically told 
when he loses them but we have..

"Then Harry's scar burst open and he knew he was dead: it was pain 
beyond imagining, pain beyond endurance......  

And as Harry's heart filled with emotion, the creature's coils 
loosened, the pain was gone; Harry was lying down on the floor, his 
glasses gone, shivering as though he lay upon ice, not wood...."

(OOTP "The Only One He ever feared" pp. 719/20 UK ediiton)

How did Harry finish up on the floor? We are not told. But in the 
agony of Voldermort's possession, he may well have fallen. He is 
shivering. Have you ever had a violent shivering fit? I have, on odd 
occasions when I have picked up a flu-like chill or similar symptom 
and I have known moments when I have been unable to hold onto things 
because of violent shivering. I suspect his glasses merely fell off 
as he went over.

I also see nothing odd in him not seeing Dumbledore at once.

Harry is face downwards.He opens his eyes and sees the glasses were 
close to him on the floor. He raises his head "a little" (p.720) to 
see DD inches away. He may well have been half on his side so that 
he  saw the glasses immediately. However. Dumbledore could have 
approached from the rear so that it wasn't until Harry turned his 
head a little or even began to shift his position that Dumbledore 
came into his field of view.