JKR and Inconsistency (was:Re: Sirius and Prank again? Fools Rush...)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 129996

>>Eloise: 
<snip>
>Actually (sorry) I blame JKR. ;-) I'm stepping back for a minute to 
look a this as a piece of writing.
>I think it's incredibly hard to set up this kind of thing without 
some inconsistencies creeping in. Sirius trying to feed Snape to a 
werewolf is the counterpoint to (and the ostensible reason for) 
Snape wanting to feed Sirius to the Dementors.<

Betsy Hp:
Except that's not the sole reason Snape wants to feed Sirius to the 
dementors.  It's not pure tit for tat.  Snape believes that Sirius 
betrayed James and Lily, murdered Peter and the muggles, and came to 
Hogwarts for the sole purpose of murdering Harry.  As far as Snape 
is concerned Sirius is continuing down a path he started way back in 
school.  Yes, Snape is thrilled to finally see Sirius get his, but 
he's also convinced that Sirius is guilty of the crimes he's been 
accused of. (Keep in mind that Lupin is quite prepared to kill Peter 
then and there for those exact same crimes.  And Peter is protesting 
too.) 

>>Eloise:
>The snooping around after MWWP is the superficial reason we are 
given for the initial resentment between them (which I quite agree 
might have a deeper cause).<

Betsy Hp:
Well, no.  Not the *initial* resentment anyway.  At least in my 
opinion, JKR does a good job of showing that these two (Snape and 
Sirius) had not liked each other for a good long while.  I was 
always under the impression that the snooping around was *because* 
of a mutual dislike, not the cause of it.

>>Eloise:
>Unfortunately, the snooping around *ought* to have alerted Snape to 
what he might face. It's compounded in OoP by having Snape reading 
about werewolves, a detail surely meant to remind us of the 
snooping, the resentment, but inconsistent with his decision to 
enter the tunnel.<

Betsy Hp:
Hmm, I know others on the list think Snape should have made the 
connection between his werewolf studies and Lupin.  But I disagree.  
For one thing, Snape's battle seems to have been mainly with Sirius 
and James.  They're the ones he would have been snooping around 
after.  Lupin, as prefect and as someone who obviously saw little 
amusing in the way James and Sirius treated Snape, would have 
garnered very little notice from Snape, IMO.

Plus, Lupin is a king at keeping secrets.  He's been bred to it 
since the day he was bitten.  I think his natural inclination is to 
say nothing until you absolutely have to and even then, hesitate.  
Dumbledore worked hard to keep Lupin's illness a secret as well.  It 
would have been inconceivable to a child raised in the WW that a 
school would allow a werewolf to attend, so I see little reason for 
Snape to suspect such a thing.  And I suspect any staff member in on 
the secret would have worked hard to make it appear that nothing at 
all was amiss with Remus Lupin.  (It would be harder to keep 
roommates out of the loop, of course.)

Frankly, we are still missing some very key factors to what happened 
the night of the prank.  So I think it's a bit early in the game to 
start leveling charges of inconsistency at JKR.  So far, I think 
she's done a bang up job.  :)

>>Eloise: 
>But then, books in general are full of these sorts of things. In 
this series, how is it *possible* that Harry both asks and confides 
so little? A good thing it is, too, or there's be no plot at all to 
speak of if he did what any sensible boy should do and tell the 
greatest wizard of the age whenever he had a suspicion that 
something was wrong instead of going it alone.<
<snip>

Betsy Hp:
I think JKR has done a good job at mitigating those factors.  For 
one, we are shown that Harry had been raised to *not* ask questions, 
ever.  For another, Dumbledore is usually conveniently (and 
believably) out of the picture when things really start to go 
wrong.  But Harry usually *does* try to go to a responsible adult 
when things go wrong.  Actually, something I think JKR does very 
well is to not have Harry be a savior all the time (usually he's 
very much *not*) and to not have the villain make really obviously 
stupid decisions that lead to their downfall.  Of course once the 
books are over we may be overwhelmed with the number of Flints, but 
at this point of the game I think JKR's story stands up to the 
fanatical scrutiny rather well.

Betsy Hp