How could Harry believe in the Dream ?

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 102358


> > Del replies :
> > But Harry has been dreaming of that corridor for a whole year now !
> > Do you truly think that each time Harry dreams of it, LV actually 
> > goes in the MoM, down in the DoM, through the doors, down the alley 
> > in the Prophecy Room, each time a bit further but never to the end? 
> > I don't think so. ... those dreams are NOT about *realtime* events.

> Asian_Lovr2:
> 
> They are 'realtime' in the sense that the coincide with the real times
> when Voldemort is obsessively thinking about the Dept of Mysteries and
> mentally planning his attack on that Department. So the realtime event
> isn't Voldemort being in the D.O.M. but Voldemort very deep in thought
> /about/ being in the D.O.M.

Annemehr:
Another thing is that Voldemort *must have actually been in that
corridor* at some time in order for Harry to get an accurate picture
of it through the scar connection. I wonder if LV had ever been there
before Godric's Hollow, or if he first reconnoitered it after his
reembodiment. Perhaps the first time Harry had that dream, it actually
coincided with LV's first visit to that corridor (and I would
conjecture that LV himself had got no further at that point).


> Asian_Lovr2:
<snip>
> Note that, his dream about Arthur's attack wasn't much different from
> the standard dream except he felt different, he felt like a snake.
> But, until the EVENT of Mr. Weasley's attack, it was, as I said
> before, just a dream about a place and his (Harry's) presents there.
> When Mr. Weasley was attack, the dream was vitally and significantly
> changed; it became an event. A real and realtime event.
> 
> That event, Mr Weasley's attack, was the authorial prelude to Sirius's
> apparent attack. That event set Harry up to believe the second attack
> on Sirius was just as real.

Annemehr:
That's a very good point. Harry, in his panicked state, would be very
ready to believe this was another of the same kind of attack, even
though a cooler head would have wondered about all those interrupted
dreams. 

Since you brought up Mr. Weasley's attack, I read it again. I am
surprised to see that there is no indication that Harry recongnises it
as taking place in *the* corridor of his other dreams, although it
does mention Arthur sitting "in front of a door at the end of the
corridor..."

Then, in OoP ch. 24, during the first Occlumency lesson, when Harry
had a vision of Arthur taking him to his MoM hearing, he *finally*
recognises the corridor of his recurring dream as the one they ran
through that morning *and* the one in which Arthur was attacked.

"He had been dreaming about a windowless corridor ending in a locked
door for months, without once realising that it was a real place." p.
537 US.

So Harry now knows that the corridor was real and, as Asian_lovr2
points out, that his dream of Arthur's attack in it was real. So I can
swallow that Harry would believe his dream of Sirius' attack was real,
too, even though there were other things that should have made him
doubt it.

Now, just for the sake of keeping this plot-line straight:
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_Rough_Chronology_of_Events:_

Beginning in the summer, Harry has regular dreams of approaching a
locked door at the end of a windowless corridor. Hypothesis: maybe the
first one coincided with LV's first visit, and the rest are when LV
obsesses or plans as Steve suggests. Since at first Harry is not so
much curious as weary of the dreams, perhaps the scar connection is
not yet much stronger than during GoF.

Just before Christmas, Harry "dreams" he is a snake attacking Arthur
Weasley. The snake's purpose was not to attack but it had to when
discovered by Arthur. Hypothesis: maybe its purpose that night was to
reconnoiter the inside the DoM which LV had never yet seen. It seems a
bit much to risk if he merely wanted someone imperioed, don't you
think? Perhaps when Bode failed to take the prophecy, LV felt he
needed to gather more first-hand info.

Shortly after Christmas, Harry begins Occlumency and realises during
1st lesson that the corridor is real and that the door leads to the
DoM. [OoP ch. 24, p. 537 US] 

A single issue of the Daily Prophet carries stories of the escape of
the DEs from Azkaban and the death of Bode. [OoP ch. 25, p. 544-546]

Sometime in January, Harry reflects that, since the first day of
Occlumency lessons, his scar prickling, and flashes of LV's emotions
(accompanied by a sharper twinge) have greatly increased, and the
corridor dreams are now coming almost every night. [OoP ch. 25, p. 553
& 554 US]  I think this is exactly what Dumbledore was talking about
when he told Harry that the lessons would open Harry's mind further to
Voldemort. [OoP ch. 37, p.833 US]

The night before the Quibbler article comes out, Harry first dreams
that the door is *ajar;* it was always locked before.  Ron snores and
wakes him up; Harry feels disappointment. Hypothesis: LV is beginning
to get new info on the DoM. From Rookwood? By exploring himself? [OoP
ch. 26, p. 577 US]

The night the Quibbler comes out, Harry has the dream of being LV and
talking to Rookwood about who can take the prophecy from the DoM
(though Harry himself doesn't know what they are talking about). [OoP
ch. 26, p. 584-586 US] Hypothesis: it is after this that LV forms his
plan to lure Harry to the DoM; Harry's eagerness to penetrate the door
and anger at being woken increase greatly from this time and reflect
LV's emotions at the time.

Finally, LV succeeds in transmitting an image of Sirius' torture. [OoP
ch. 31, beg. on p. 726 US]  It's perhaps odd that LV's success finally
comes in the afternoon when most of the dreams occured at night --
maybe just a clue to Hermione and logical readers?
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Looking at how these events occured and interrelated, it's surprising
how much came together to send Harry to the DoM: Voldemort's obsession
with the prophecy, Voldemort discovering the scar connection because
of and accidental attack on Mr. Weasley, the breakout of the DEs
making Rookwood's knowledge available to LV, and Occlumency lessons
facilitating the scar connection and yet never getting far enough to
block it.

Then there are the "if onlys" -- if only Harry had known the lessons
would make him worse at first, if only he had practiced more, if only
Hermione could have made Harry see the vision was unlikely, if only
Sirius hadn't hopped up onto the dais, of all stupid places --

Harry and Sirius; two of a kind: if not for rotten luck, they'd have
none at all...

Annemehr
Happy anniverary, OoP!