The scar connection: is JKR cheating?

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 91595

The interesting "second Voldemort war" thread from a few days ago 
made me do some research into the mind connection between Harry and 
LV, and I discovered a strange inconsistency in its description. 

In OotP both Snape and DD tell us that the scar marks a connection 
between the minds of Harry and LV. A logical implication of this 
connection is that, when Harry receives perceptions from LV's mind, 
he should see them from LV's point of view. And indeed, this is how 
Harry's "visions" are described. Whenever the point of view is given, 
it is always through LV's eyes. The one exception is the snake's 
attack on Arthur Weasley, which Harry sees through the snake's eyes, 
but this is logically explained by Snape in that LV was inhabiting 
the snake at that time.

If, however, you go back to GoF with this new knowledge about the 
mind connection, you'll find that Harry's visions from LV's mind are 
*not* through LV's eyes. There are two such visions in GoF:

The dream in the beginning of GoF: this is the first time Harry 
receives more than just pain through the scar connection. It seems 
that Harry's point of view is located behind LV's chair. Harry can't 
remember what LV looked like: "All Harry knew was that at the moment 
when Voldemort's chair had swung around, and he, Harry, had seen what 
was sitting in it, he had felt a spasm of horror, which had awoken 
him
or had that been the pain in his scar?" But Harry doesn't see the 
scene from Frank Brice's point of view either: "there had definitely 
been an old man; Harry had watched him fall to the ground" and in the 
previous chapter we are specifically told Frank was dead before he 
hit the ground. Harry doesn't see it from Nagini's point of view 
either: "There had been a snake on a hearth rug". 

The dream during the divination lesson: Harry dreams that he is 
riding to LV's hideout on the back of an eagle owl. This awl, in 
fact, seems to be the real owl that imposter!Moody sent LV to notify 
him about killing Crouch Sr., since LV mentions this in his words to 
Wormtail. Again, Harry sees things from a point of view located 
behind LV's chair, so he does not see LV, only the tip of his wand, 
and Wormtail and Nagini in front of the chair.

This inconsistency between GoF and OotP bothers me because it seems 
like JKR was cheating us in GoF, so we would not realise too early 
about the scar connection. She made it look like the visions were due 
to some vogue prophetic abilities of Harry. After all, we all know 
that "he saw it in a dream" is a standard plot device authors use to 
give the hero some knowledge he couldn't have in any realistic way, 
so we haven't had any reason to think about mechanistic explanations, 
such as a mind connection. Until now I was under the impression that 
JKR might hide things from us, or through red herrings to confuse us, 
but she is always consistent. Except for flints, of course, but until 
now we only had flints in issues that are not central to the plot, 
such as the number of students.

So I'll be very grateful if somebody can find a logical explanation 
to this inconsistency in Harry's point of view.

Neri