Curses and non-descriptions (was: DDM!Snape clue)

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 148448


> Neri:
> Of course, since it indeed isn't written that it was Harry who 
shouted
> the curse, it can theoretically be anyone, even Snape, but here I 
want
> to take this opportunity to talk about a more general issue that I 
was
> thinking about for some time. I'll call it a "non-description" 
because
> I don't know if there's a professional literary term for it. 
> I'll define a non-description as follows: It's something that the 
hero
> must see or know, yet the narrator chooses not to describe it
> explicitly.

zgirnius:
If Snape petrified the werewolf, this scene is NOT a non-description. 
The narrator is telling us the scene as Harry perceives it. And Harry 
hears the spell and sees its effect, but he does not see the caster 
or identify the voice. This is not all that odd, he is being attacked 
by one big, mean werewolf and chasing a hated murderer, so he has 
better things to worry about than which of his friends helped him 
out. (Or even, whether Greyback, like Gibbon, was hit by friendly 
fire).

This would be just like the scene in PS/SS in which Quirrell is 
jinxing Harry's broom, and Snape is doing a countercurse. The 
narrator, by you standard of playing fair with us, ought to have told 
us what Quirrell was doing when Hermione bumped into him (even if 
Hermione herself did not notice, being too intent on her plans to set 
Snape's robes on fire). She was right there, she should have seen 
Quirrell was staring intently at Harry and doing whatever it is one 
does to jinx a broom.

Neri:
> In our case Harry, at the very least, knows if it's
> himself who shouted the curse or somebody else (if it's somebody 
else
> there's still the possibility that Harry identified the source by 
it's
> voice). So this is a classic case of a non-description. I'm not 
saying
> there's anything wrong with a non-description. It would have been an
> extremely long and boring book if every detail the hero sees or does
> was described explicitly. But I *would* feel that the author is
> cheating if she later uses her non-description in order to spring
> something unexpected on me.

zgirnius:
Oh, OK, I see what you mean. Harry should at least wonder where the 
spell came from, if it was not him.

But actually now that I have reread Flight of the Prince again, it is 
quite interesting. The two Petrificuses from nowhere at the start of 
the chapter are the only possible Harry spells described in that way. 
Following our hero past that point, we see every single spell he 
casts, explicitly attributed to him either by letting us know he said 
or thought the incantation, by explicit mention of his wand movement, 
by explicit mention that he cast a spell, or finally (in the case of 
some unsuccessful spells) that Snape blocked them. A complete list 
follows:

"Impedimenta!" yelled Harry. (Saves Ginny from Amycus}

...said Harry, aiming a hex from the floor at the enormous blond 
Death Eater...(just after talking with Neville)

"Impedimenta!" he yelled as he rolled over again, (takes down one of 
the brother/sister pair, who tried to hex him from behind on the 
grounds outside the castle)

Harry...took aim at Snape's back and yelled, "Stupefy!"

...he and Harry looked at each other before raising their wands 
simultaneously.
"Cruc-"
But Snape parried the curse, knocking Harry backward off his feet...

"Cruc-" yelled Harry for the second time...

"Incarc-" Harry roared...

"Stupe-"
"Blocked again and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and 
your mind closed, Potter!" sneered Snape, deflecting the curse once 
more.

"Sectum-!"
Snape flicked his wand and the curse was repelled yet again; but 
Harry was mere feet away now...

...Harry thought, *Levi-*

Harry raised his wand arm...and murmured "Aguamenti" too:

So I wonder why she did it this way. Perhaps she feels that is enough 
of a clue? (Even if you do not, reasonably enough. After all, she 
could have Harry wonder who cast the spell as he runs on after 
Snape...)

Neri:
> But is there a case were JKR uses a non-description to play
> a trick on both Harry and us?

zgirnius:
I wish she had told us the color of the Sectumsempra curse, and the 
color of the curse Snape used on James in "Snape's Worst Memory". But 
since she has not, I of course can't say whether it was to protect 
the identity of the Half-Blood Prince from those readers who had not 
yet figured it out by the "Sectumsempra" chapter of HBP, or not.

It is an interesting question, though. I'll be thinking about non-
descriptions...