Marauder's Map

[jlv230]

No: HPFGUIDX 131732


<snip>
> Alisha:
> In CoS, Arthur has the memorable line, "Don't trust anything that 
> can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain."  
> When Harry first uses the map, he even remembers this advice.
> 
> My question is, will JKR ever show us why the map shouldn't be 
> trusted?  It seems like she meant Arthur's advice to be sound, but 
> Harry's quick dismissal of it seems like a cop-out (if it was indeed 
> meant to set our fears to rest).  It's almost like JKR said, "Oh, 
> crap!  I've set this precedent for dealing with magical objects, but 
> I really like this one, and I don't want my readers to be suspicious 
> of it.  What can I do?  I know, I'll just have Harry remember the 
> advice and then decide it's worth the risk.  Then no one will worry."
> 
> jmoses22002:
> I believe, that line was said in order to raise your suspicions about
> Tom Riddle's book.  The map just got caught in the crossfire.
> 
> Geoff:
> That cannot be accurate. Don't forget that Arthur Weasley made this 
> comment at the /end/ of Chamber of Secrets - after we already have 
> had our suspicions about Tom's diary confirmed.

JLV:
Absolutely Geoff. And the map wasn't actually introduced `til PoA 
anyway.

Alisha, the way I see it, Harry thinking about Arthur's comment is a 
cunning red-herring clue.

In POA, it seems JKR wants us to like Lupin initially (like Harry 
does), but drops a number of hints that could be interpreted as him 
being ESE. When he turns up at the shrieking shack, it seems JKR wants 
us to think `Noo! He was bad all along! He let Black in!' – the same 
way Harry does.

The clues, including:
- Snape's suspicion
- the map (including Harry's though about Arthur's comment and Snape's 
and Lupin's reactions to it when Snape finds it)
- hints about the whole werewolf thing
lead us (and the Trio) to conclude that we should have seen it all 
along – Lupin being evil is obvious! Harry, Ron and Hermione discuss 
this evidence in detail in the shrieking shack. I thought it was a 
great `aha!' moment and it worked because ESE!Lupin fits the evidence.

I don't think for a moment JKR thought, "Oh, crap!  I've set this 
precedent for dealing with magical objects, but I really like this one, 
and I don't want my readers to be suspicious of it.  What can I do?  I 
know, I'll just have Harry remember the advice and then decide it's 
worth the risk.  Then no one will worry." Because that frankly wouldn't 
work. It would only make us *more* suspicious of the map, and think 
Harry a fool for not heeding the advice when it is finally revealed 
that the-Lupin-who-we-now-think-is-evil says he helped write it. (`Noo! 
Stupid Harry! You should have known!')

When it turns out that Lupin is NOT evil (I'm not having a ESE!Lupin 
debate here but I think Lupin *is* on the good side), and Black is NOT 
evil, we are gradually persuaded (like the Trio) that the `evidence' is 
all bunk. Black gives his side of the story and we have another 
(bigger) `aha!' moment and – again – it works because it fits the 
evidence. And you think `Ooh, you are tricksy JKR – just when I was 
convinced, you showed me I was fooled again!'.

I love twists in the tale and red herrings. (*spoiler* I think The 
Usual Suspects is a wonderful film – there is a double twist there.) 
This double-bluff on JKR's part is one of the reasons why PoA is my 
favourite Harry book (the other being whole time-travel thing which is 
brilliant because it adheres to the rule that you can't change the 
past – none of this `Back to the Future' nonsense).

JMO,
JLV xx