"Constant as the Northern Star"

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 114697


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Barry Arrowsmith 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
> Of course sometimes what she does, what she says seems 
just a little off, a little contrived.
> Two examples:
> The  first is in her initial meeting with Harry -
> 
> "I  know all about you, of course [...] and you're in Modern 
Magical   History and the Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great 
Wizarding  Events  of the Twentieth Century."
 "Am I?" said Harry feeling dazed.
 "Goodness, didn't you  know, I'd have found out everything I 
could if  it was me."
> 
> Yes, and so would anyone else. But not Harry, not even just  a 
few days   after he  finds out that the Dursleys have been lying to  
him for  years. He never asks Hermione; not then, not ever; he 
never sneaks into  the library to find the books, he never browses 
F&B's shelves, despite  spending a week or more in Diagon 
Alley after Stan Shunpike links  Sirius Black, Harry Potter and 
Voldemort for him on the Knight Bus.
> If JKR doesn't  want him to know, why mention the damn 
books? Grrr. T'ain't natural, I tell 'ee.<

Pippin:
To demonstrate that Harry is remarkably incurious about his 
past. One can argue that it isn't natural, but it is, IMO, a deft way 
to show us this facet of his being. It's not unnatural to me, BTW. 
Sitting just a few feet away from the keyboard here is a box with 
all my family's letters from WWII in it. I'm remarkably reluctant to 
delve into it--not sure I'll like what I find, y'know? I've read
about others who feel the same way. And Harry already knows 
that the big answers aren't in those books: they won't tell him 
why he survived nor why Voldemort wanted to kill him. 

Kneasy: 
> Secondly there's that petrification episode in CoS.
 Many have commented that it's entirely out  of character for 
Hermione  to tear pages out of a book; I'd suggest that it's also 
out of  character for her to scribble on the pages of a book
 ("pipes") and carry  off  the page to  show to Harry  and Ron. 
 Invariably at other times she's just *told* them or dragged them 
up to  the library. And where did that hand-mirror come from? It's 
all designed so as to set up a delayed realisation on Harry's 
part, we know that - but it doesn't seem to have been plotted or 
presented with JKR's  usual facility, and a lot of fans noticed.<

Pippin:
Elementary my dear Kneasy, Hermione didn't do those things, 
and JKR makes it slightly out of character so that we'll notice and 
Harry doesn't. Ginny!Mort dunnit, but it's not time for Harry to 
realize that, because he isn't to know that there's a more than 
distant connection between Voldemort-that-was and the vapor in 
Albania. Hermione marks the switch in targets from random 
mudbloods to Harry Potter.  Here's the clue: "I knew you would 
go to any lengths to solve the mystery--particularly if one of your 
best friends was attacked." --CoS ch 17. Those clues were put 
there in hopes that Harry would be lured to the Chamber (easy 
enough for Ginny to keep watch and see when he went), there to  
fall once more into the diary's power. But stupid Harry didn't find 
the clues in time, and Riddle was forced to take Ginny down 
there himself--term would soon be over and Harry would return 
once more to the impregnable fortress of Privet Drive.

Kneasy: 
> Among all the major characters Hermione is the one I've 
theorised about  least; she just doesn't have a handle, a foible, a 
weakness that can be  built on. Oh, except once, and her 
weakness was her caring nature. What  would she do, what 
price would she pay if an apparently sincere somebody 
wandered up to her and promised that if she co-operated in 
 this very minor bit of business, then it would eventually result in 
 House Elves being freed? Mmm. Interesting.<

Pippin:

As a mystery writer, JKR can't explore the psychology of her 
villains directly -- that would let us know who they are. But she 
can use Hermione to open a window on their thought--the above 
scenario could apply very well to ESE!Lupin.

Hermione' also gives us some idea of what makes Snape tick, 
particularly her frequent "Well, you were breaking school rules" 
looks whenever Harry gets to brooding on his wrongs, her lack of 
interest in taming her hair,  her elaborate revenges and her 
devious methods of implementing them.

Pippin