Thestrals Again

Marianne S. schumar1999 at yahoo.com
Sat Dec 31 20:56:46 UTC 2005


No: HPFGUIDX 145669


> La Gatta Lucianese:
<snip>
> So, my question is, does it take a while for thestral-seeing to set 
> in, or did JKR drop a byte in there somewhere? ;D
>

Marianne S: 
Quoting from hp-lexicon.org: 
Harry has never seen the Thestrals pulling the school carriages before, but he has 
witnessed death several times: his mother and Cedric. Why didn't he see the Thestrals 
before? Rowling has answered that question in the Royal Albert Hall interview (RAH) 
Thursday June 26, 2003. She said that it takes a while for a death to be processed, to be 
accepted. Harry hadn't yet come to that point with Cedric's death at the end of the last 
school year. He was too young to understand his mother's death and so that never 
registered in the same way.

Further down on the page there was an email and response to her asking the same 
question:
Email: Harry saw his parents die so why hasn't he been able to see the Thestrals before?

     JK Rowling:  I knew I was going to get that one
that is an excellent question. And here 
is the truth. At the end of Goblet of Fire we sent Harry home more depressed than he had 
ever been leaving Howarts.  I knew that Thestrals were coming, and I can prove that 
because they're in the book I'd produced for Comic Relief (UK) Fantastic Beaststs and 
Where to Find Them. 
     These are lucky Black Winged Horses. However, if Harry had seen them and it had not 
been explained then it would cheat the reader.  So, to explain that to myself, I decided you 
had to have seen the death and allowed it to sink in a bit
 slowly
these creatures 
became solid in front of you. So that's how I'm going to sneak past that one.

Hope that helps!

Marianne S. 







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