Stupid things characters do to the sake of the plot

[jjpandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 94554

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Robert Jones" 
<jones.r.h.j at w...> wrote:
> I finished rereading COS last night, and I noticed that some of 
the 
> characters do stupid things for which there is no explanation 
except 
> that they are necessary to advance the plot.  Here are two 
examples 
> from COS.
> 
> At the train station, when the wall at Platform 9 and 3/4 wouldn't 
> open, Harry and Ron almost immediately run to the car.  I know 
they 
> had to get the car into the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts for later 
> in the story, but shouldn't they just have waited for Arthur and 
> Molly?  (And by the way, where were Arthur and Molly?  Didn't they 
> notice that Harry and Ron didn't get through?  And shouldn't there 
> have been other wizarding parents dribbling through the wall a 
> couple at a time?)
> 
> At the end, Lockhart blabs all about the fake he is to Harry and 
Ron 
> and then immediately turns around to put a Memory Charm on them.  
I 
> know he had to do so that Harry and Ron could get him down in the 
> Chamber of Secrets to finish off the Lockhart story line and to 
get 
> the ceiling to crash, but still that is just stupid for him to 
do.  
> He had kept that secret for years and now was leaving and yet he 
> still blabs away to a couple kids and then would have to explain 
why 
> Harry and Ron lost their memories in his office.  (And by the way, 
I 
> know it was hard to get a DADA teacher, but shouldn't the great DD 
> have known Lockhart was a fake?)
> 
> Any other examples?

JJPandy replied:
I always found it amusing that JKR lightly spoofed movies and TV 
shows where the bad guy confesses all of his/her evil doings right 
before he/she is supposed to kill the good guys and/or escape.  It 
rarely works. If Lockhart hadn't had his memory erased, I almost 
would have expected the movie directors to have had Lockhart being 
led away by DD and then have him turn one last time to Ron and Harry 
the movie and say "I would have escaped if it hadn't been for these 
meddlesome kids!" (Scooby-Doo flashbacks, anyone?)
:)
JJPandy (back after a long time of just lurking in the shadows)