The Too Unreliable Narrator (was: What really happened on the tower)

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 155954

 
> Neri:
> It's not me who suspected Dobby. It's Fred:
> 
> ***************************************************
> CoS, Ch. 3, p. 28:
> "What, you think he was lying to me?" said Harry.
> "Well," said Fred, "put it this way — house-elves have got powerful
> magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their
> master's permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming
> back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone 
at
> school with a grudge against you?"
> ***************************************************
> 
> So Dobby was challenged by Fred, but he wasn't vouched for be 
anybody
> AFAIK, and in the end he turned out innocent. I think this doesn't 
fit
> with the rule Pippin suggested.

zgirnius:
He was guilty of precisely what Fred suggested, though. He *WAS* 
trying to keep Harry from coming to school. All that Fred got wrong 
was that Dobby was actually acting on his own initiative, and not on 
his master's orders, not at all against Pippin's rules, and a fine 
example of misdirection, putting such a reasonable-sounding 
explanation of Dobby's motives out there to confuse the unwary reader.
> Neri:
> Ginny was at the very least guilty of breaking into Harry's room and
> stealing the Diary back. That was her idea and not Tom's, and she 
also
> could tell Harry and Ron about it but didn't.

zgirnius:
I considered her to be acting, in the case of the theft, to protect 
Harry from the frightening powers of the diary. This motive was 
established by her confrontation with Malfoy in the bookstore early 
in the book. And she did try to tell Harry. Then Percy came by, 
interrupted her, and convinced Harry it had nothing to do with the 
Chamber of Secrets. Though the narrator's choice of imagery 
(comparing her to Dobby) was a hint of sorts that something was 
wrong, since under normal circumstances she is not under the same 
sorts of constraints, being a free witch and not an enslaved Hosue 
Elf.

Anyway, while she was technically 'unreliable', since I find her to 
have acted consistently with trying to be a friend to Harry, I don't 
agree that he was 'deceived' by her.