Plot in OotP (wand confusion)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 118312


Carol earlier:
> >
> > It's like the carelessness regarding wands in the graveyard scene
of GoF: How can Harry be holding his wand *and* the portkey in one
hand and dragging Cedric's body with the other? 
> 
> bboyminn replied:
> 
> Others have responded, but what we really have here is a matter of
> reader perspective, reader perspective that has been inflamed by
> reader emotions. Not saying you are over emotional, just that you
are filling in the spaces between lines in way that others surely
don't see.
> 
> Take the wand/portkey example; hold a ruler in your hand and pick up
a coffee cup by the handle; it's really not that hard. Others
mentioned that Harry isn't dragging Cedric anywhere, he's just holding
his wrist. In addition, he doesn't really have to hold the entire
portkey (Tri-Wiz Cup), he just has to touch the handle. Just like you
can grasp a coffee cup handle while holding a ruler, all Harry has to
do is get a finger or two around the handle and he's home free. Once
the cup/portkey is touched and activated, you are stuck to it as it
pulls you onward. 
>

Carol responds:
I hope I don't sound rude, but readers' emotions have nothing to do
with it. It's an awkward, almost impossible moment:

"'Accio!' Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the Triwizard Cup. It
flew into the air and soared toward him. Harry caught it by the
handle--He heard Voldemort's scream of fury at the same moment that he
felt the jerk behind his navel..."

Harry has to *catch* the presumably heavy TWT cup with a hand that's
already holding the wand that a second before was pointing at the cup.
His other hand is grasping Cedric's arm. The natural reaction would be
to drop the wand and catch the cup handle, but he somehow manages to
hold onto the wand, as we know because he has it with him when he
returns, and still catch the flying cup, possibly with his thumb and
forefinger as the other three fingers clutch the wand. Awkward, to say
the least.

It's a badly choreographed moment, like Wormtail holding Baby Voldie
yet still (unless you're a conspiracy theorist) managing to AK Cedric.
(Later, as someone else pointed out, he has to fumble with the wand to
tie Harry up. He doesn't have his own wand, as we know from the
Shrieking Shack scene. He uses LV's wand for the AK and presumably the
other spell, but as Kneasy pointed out, that spell doesn't show up in
the Priori Incantatem scene--too minor? Not evil? Harry wasn't paying
that much attention? JKR forgot or deliberately ignored it?)

The whole business of the wands is very badly handled in that chapter.
I don't think JKR was paying attention to minor details. She was
concerned with the main action and with sustaining an atmosphere of
tenseness and suspense.

Carol, whose only reaction to this scene is wholly analytical though
she did cry for Cedric