Wanting or presenting: Was: Snape's reaction to Harry in Slytherin

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 93415


Berit quoted:
> > Quote:"Surely it couldn't hurt if he [Harry] took the hat down and 
> > tried again? Just to see... just to make sure it had put him in the 
> > right house... 'You've been wondering whether I put you in the 
> > right house,' said the hat smartly. 'Yes, you were particularly 
> > difficult to place. But I stand by what I said before – you would 
> > have done well in Slytherin.'" (CoS, p. 154-155 UK Ed)

Annemehr:
I have seen this passage quoted this way before.  Here, Berit ends it
with a period, but in my copy (Scholastic paperback) it ends in a
*dash* -- which tells me that Harry *interrupted* the hat by yanking
it off at this point.  But now I'm wondering if UK editions have a
period instead of a dash?


> Susan:
> Thanks for this additional input, Berit.  It is helpful to get the 
> two sections of text together.  I still think, though, that the 
> word "wanted" is awfully strong to place onto the SH.
<snip> 
> It *is* curious that the SH does not assuage Harry's fears, doesn't 
> come right out and say, "Oh, no, you're a Gryffindor through & 
> through" or some such thing.  I'm not sure why it did this, other 
> than perhaps it really wants Harry to *think* about this for 
> himself.  But I stand by my original statement, that while the SH 
> believed Harry could have done well in Slytherin, it did not 
> necessarily *want* to place him there.

Annemehr:
Well, because of the dash (in my text, at least), I'm not at all sure
the hat wasn't about to continue by saying something about how well
Harry *is* doing in Gryffindor, or how the hat was right to place him
there.  It also fits JKR's pattern of interrupting something
important.  It makes me wonder if Harry will be putting the hat on
again soon, maybe help Harry sort out some of what's going on inside
his head?

It is interesting that in CoS Harry had such an aversion to hearing he
*could have* been in Slytherin that he can't even wait for the hat to
finish its sentence.  Was he afraid the hat was going to switch his
house then and there?

Annemehr
picturing Slytherin!Harry with the hat on while it tells him "You
would have done well in Gryffindor..."