Perchance to dream...

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 97591

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "tub_of_earwax" <tub_of_earwax at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "caesian" <caesian at y...> wrote:

(Heavy snipping throughout)

> > Kneasy wrote:
> > > I was wondering - why bother to recount a dream in canon
> > > and then tell us that the dreamer never remembers it? 
> > > Such an odd dream, too.
> > > 
> 
> 
> > Caesian responds:
> > I was just reading this passage about 2 minutes before your post - 
> > talk about divination.  I  think you are correct that the dream
>> is meaningful, but there are  two points I disagree with.  Harry
> > does understand the flash of green light, and even  the high-
> > pitched cackle of laughter - because he recalls them after Hagrid
> > describes his  parents death earlier in the book. 
>

Kneasy:
Ah. I  think you've slid past the key word in that quote - and that's
"signifies". True, he can remember bits and pieces; that wasn't really
the thrust of my argument; it's the meaning that's unknown to Harry. 

> Lara:
> Why does he not remember the dream? because you often don't after 
> you've had one, especially is you go back to sleep afterwards. And 
> what's the point in showing us the dream if he doesn't remember it? 

Kneasy:
Exactly. The passage isn't for Harry at all -  it's for us, the readers.
A little nugget for us to poke and puzzle over IMO. Ours and ours 
alone, 'cos  Harry never remembers it. 

Generally most clues only confirm themselves as such with hindsight.
We may have had suspicions, we may wonder, but usually the certain, 
positive identification of a clue before the event is a rare and wondrous
thing. In this instance a whole load of stuff was handed to us on a
plate - "Look! Information! Hints! Harry hasn't been told and you have!"

In the same book the talking turban is explained, yet another clue 
that the dream is not just page-filler. It has meaning, it very likely
points to other things. And what things!

Slytherin is his destiny.
The Sorting Hat tells Harry that he ought to be in Slytherin again
in CoS; since then zilch. OK, I doubt he will join the Slyths, but the
thrust is that for whatever reason (transfer of Voldy bits?) Harry has
an affinity for Slytherin, whether he likes it or not. And very likely
this affinity is strongly plot sensitive. So far this hasn't been evident,
the connections we've seen aren't between Harry and Slytherin, but 
Harry and Voldy. Unless Voldy *is* Slytherin. 
Must think a bit more of the possible ramifications resulting from
that possibility (again!). All sorts of explanations/threads/theories
can be surmised from that starting point. Hmm.

Malfoy laughs and turns into Snape.
It's not often in the books that young Malfoy has the luxury of a 
good laugh at Harry's expense; if it is a clue then it probably relates
to a significant event. There doesn't seem to be anything in canon
up to now that one would point to and say "That's it!" Usually Malfoy
doesn't laugh anyway, he's smug, he sneers instead.
Snape is a whole other. Snape laughing. Difficult to imagine except
in extreme circumstances. That "high and cold" laughter; not friendly
at all. Somehow seems to have overtones of triumph, of "now I win".
The Snape-ologists will love that scene, if it ever happens.

Finally the green flash. A recurring event in the books. Does it refer
to Godric's Hollow and Lily or to future events? And is it connected
to Snape? Can't quite fit the high and cold laughter to the "cackle"
that Harry recalls in his replays of GH. Snape with Voldy at GH?
Oho! What a revelation that would be! Lip-smacking shock-horror.
But maybe that's stretching things a bit  far, at least for now. 

PS/SS was heavily edited before publication. JKR took out 15(!)
chapters because originally it told us way too much about the whys
and wherefors of the HP saga. I'm wondering if this little scene
wasn't left in as a sort of consolation prize, a morsel to mark,
note and inwardly digest.

Kneasy