That Night at Godric's Hollow - a discussion of what I'll be looking out

[jotwo2003]

No: HPFGUIDX 131383

There's a lot of speculation that what happened the night that the 
Potters were killed at Godric's Hollow may be the Chapter One of HBP 
that's been 13 years in the brewing.  If this is correct then I will 
be very interested in looking out for any hints that the person who 
makes the final stand against Voldemort to protect Lily and Harry 
isn't James.  (This is a theory that arose from the flashback in the 
PS/SS film. As JKR wrote this herself, according to an interview in 
Empire Online with Columbus, I take it as canon.  In the flashback 
Geraldine Somerville and a child are shown, but the audience just 
sees the black-clad arm and hand of the person standing in front of 
her.  Also the cast list is in order of appearance but Adrian Rawlins 
is not credited alongside Geraldine Somerville.  He is credited much 
later.  This implies that Adrian Rawlins only played James in the 
Mirror of Erised scene, not the Godric's Hollow scene.) 

I'll be particularly scrutinising the attribution of the man's 
dialogue in chapter one.  If it is followed by things like James said 
or replied James, then it will confirm that the person with Lily was 
Harry's father.  If, however, there are no qualifying tags to 
indicate the name of the speaker then I will consider that this does 
not rule out the possibility that it isn't James, but is A. N. 
Other.  If it is A. N. Other, then I support the theory that it was 
Snape.  

(To recap, the canon argument for Snape being there is that 
originally Dumbledore was tipped off by a spy that the Potters were 
in danger, and we know Snape was a spy.  If he was trying to protect 
Lily and James, on finding out that the Secret Keeper had told 
Voldemort of their whereabouts, it would be logical for Snape to have 
gone to Godric's Hollow to warn them.  However he may have been 
disbelieved by James.  It's suggested that Snape's comment to Harry 
in POA, "You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe 
you might be mistaken in Black" may be evidence of this.  From the 
film there's a suggestion that the disembodied hand looks like Alan 
Rickman's hand, but having scrutinised the flashback several times, 
the shot is too blurry and brief to make any positive 
identification.)  

Even if we get a line like "'James', cried Lily" (because there's a 
suggestion that this is what Geraldine Somerville is mouthing in the 
film, although other theories are that it is help or help me), if the 
male speaker is not definitively identified as James, I still think 
it is open to interpretation.

Also if the man uses an Invisibility Cloak, then I think that means 
he is not James, even though Harry and the reader associate this item 
with his father.  Back in PS Dumbledore said James gave the cloak to 
him before he went into hiding, so he can't use it, because he 
doesn't have it.  However I suspect most child and non-fan adult 
readers will have forgotten this fact. 

Finally even if the scene portrays Voldemort blasting the man with a 
spell and the man falling to the ground, I will still not be 
convinced that it is James being killed, unless JKR explicitly uses 
terms like "dead", "dying", "killed" or "murdered".  If I recall 
correctly, there is a scene in one of Agatha Christie's books in 
which someone appears to be shot in the leg, and she describes the 
visible effect in terms of a flow of red.  She does not explicitly 
mention blood, but the reader jumps to the conclusion that it is 
blood.  Later in the book this assumption is proved to be 
illusionary.  JKR has already proved herself to be good at 
misdirection and may want the reader to believe one thing when what 
is actually happening is different. 

Of course on 16 July chapter one might turn out to be something 
totally different


JoTwo