bullies? twins, padfoot and prongs

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 118707


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ginnysthe1" <ginnysthe1 at y...>
wrote:
> 
> Kim here, snipping liberally at post no. 118557 in order to ask a few 
> specific questions:
> 
> Valky wrote:
> The phrase "as though he had been expecting an attack" in no way
> leads to an assumption that James was still armed.  Snape 
> was 'expecting" an attack, from Harry's POV. This information
> is gleaned by Harry, *strictly*, from Snapes reaction. If James'
> wand was out before Snape moved, then the POV of Harry would not be
> that Snapes reaction was *as though* he had been <note the
> curiosity of the narration> *expecting an attack*, surely.
> The appropriate wording in the case of James' wand already being out
> and aimed at Snape would be: Snape reacted quickly to the impending
> attack. The attack was not obvious, James wand was not drawn or
> aimed.   Of that I am entirely certain.
> 
> Kim asks now:  
> 
> Has anyone else wondered, as I do now, whether we can really trust 
> the POV of pensieve scenes?  After all, the pensieve scene in this 
> case is Snape's memory of what happened between him and James and 
> Sirius at the lake many years ago.  Could Snape's memory of what 
> actually happened be a little fuzzy?  Actually this scene is several-
> layered -- it's the author/narrator's view of Harry's view of Snape's 
> memory... (isn't it?) 
> 
> Kim

Carol responds:
While I think that the memory itself, as preserved in the Pensieve, is
an objective record of what happened, including parts that Severus
himself did not witness or overhear, and Harry enters into and walks
around inside that objective record, it's still Harry's perception of
what happened as recorded by the limited omniscient narrator. In that
respect, it's exactly like the rest of the book (with a few notable
exceptions): We hear and see what really happened, but it's filtered
through Harry's (not Snape's) POV. What Harry doesn't notice, e.g.,
James drawing his wand, we don't see either. Statements like "Snape
was clearly unpopular" are clearly the narrator's interpretation of
the scene, which reflects Harry's. The actions and words can, IMO, be
regarded as objective truth within the context of the books, but
interpretive statements should be taken with a grain of salt. We are
not inside the heads of any of the characters in the memory and can
only speculate as to their motives, but there's nothing "fuzzy" about
the action and the dialogue in themselves--or the fuzziness comes from
what Harry doesn't see or the narrator doesn't record, in addition to
the interpretive statements previously mentioned.

Carol, wondering how readers would react to the books if JKR had used
a third-person dramatic narrator who presented the action objectively,
from the outside, without *any* POV character 

Carol