JKR has Mystery Writer-related to Tower Theories-long!

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 149559

The recent conversations about the Tower have got me thinking about 
JKR as a writer of secrets or mysteries.  A lot of us have obviously 
been spending a lot of time pointing to moments in canon and asking 
for a sign that certain things are going on, if they are and it 
seems like many people don't find it hard to believe that key 
moments are meant to be imagined or assumed to be covered up.  This 
always surprises me because in my experience it seems like JKR 
*always* writes those things in.  In fact, it's what she does in 
place of writing an actual solvable mystery.  I wrote this on my lj 
but it seemed like it was probably even more on-topic here, so here 
goes. (Hope I got rid of all the formatting!)

I don't think you can really solve all of the mysteries at the 
center of the HP books.  You can figure out basically what's 
happening, that Voldemort is trying to get Harry to the MoM, that 
Draco is trying to kill Dumbledore.  Sometimes these things aren't 
even hidden.  But I don't think there's any way that, for instance, 
you can really figure out ahead of time in GoF that Moody is really 
Barty Crouch Jr. not dead and Polyjuiced and planning to spirit 
Harry away to Voldemort when he touches the Tri-wizard cup.  Or that 
Draco is fixing that Vanishing Cabinet to bring DEs to the school.  
You can't do these things, because you don't have the information.  
We don't even know a Vanishing Cabinet works with its pair as a 
portal, and it's not like this is real world knowledge, so how could 
we guess it?  Had we heard Montague's story beforehand we could, but 
we didn't, so we can't.

I don't think JKR's stories rely on those kinds of mysteries, they 
just feel like they do--perhaps this is why they hold up more on re-
reading (despite the inevitable "Why the hell didn't Barty just turn 
the nearest eraser into a Portkey and toss it to Harry?").  They're 
really more about the adventure and the plot that's revealed.  Where 
they feel like mysteries is we still get that very satisfying, "Oh!  
So that's what was going on!  That's what that meant!" feeling when 
all is revealed.  We get that because JKR has showed it to us every 
time. We really do "see" everything.  Not to the point where we 
could probably solve it ourselves, usually, but so that all these 
questions we had, even if we didn't realize it, suddenly become 
clear.  Reading back the book doesn't become less satisfying because 
we know who done it, but more satisfying because we know what's 
really going on and can follow along with the secret plot.  

I'm going to use GoF as an example, because it may be one of the 
best.  I'm going to sum up the "mystery plot" of GoF, which you all 
probably know and can skip but there's a reason it's here: 

Barty Crouch Jr. is the son of Bartemius Crouch, Sr., who led the 
trials against Death Eaters during the first war and became cruel 
and judgmental.  Junior was tried as a Death Eater and sentenced to 
Azkaban where he cried for his mother.  On his last parental visit 
his mother Polyjuiced herself into him and died in his place.  Barty 
was kept under Imperius by his father, cared for by Winky, but was 
eventually discovered by Bertha Jorkins, who was herself discovered 
by Peter Pettigrew, who brought her to Voldemort, who then zapped 
and killed her and went to find his servant.  Barty escaped from his 
father at the QWC, where he was supposed to be being watched by 
Winky while he was under an invisibility cloak.  He stole Harry's 
wand and set off a Dark Mark to strike fear into the hearts of Death 
Eaters who went free, whom he hates with a passion.  Crouch fired 
Winky when he got free.  Later, under Voldemort's orders, he 
Polyjuiced himself into Mad-Eye Moody and taught at Hogwarts during 
the year.  He slipped Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire so that 
he would be in the Tournament with the help of Crouch Sr., now 
Imperiused by Voldemort.  He tries to give Harry help so that he 
will win the Tournament.  When his father escapes, fighting off the 
Imperius, he kills him and hides the body.  Eventually Harry wins 
the tournament, touching a portkey he's made, and is whisked off to 
Voldemort.

Whew! That's a hell of a complicated mystery to be revealed, huh!  
But even with a whole chapter devoted to the confession, it's not so 
bad because we saw it all happen.  There's not a single item of this 
story that Rowling has not included in the book beforehand, either 
by having someone tell it to us in some other context or by having 
it acted out in a scene without our knowing it.  Each important beat 
or element has a scene explained by it and only it. So rather than 
feeling like we're being hit by a big story we've never heard (which 
unfortunately is what many theories come down to) the story just 
slots easily into place explaining scenes that, although we might 
not have been totally aware of it, did not quite make sense 
otherwise. Even if we preferred elements of the earlier version of a 
scene and try to cling to them later, the revised version really 
makes more sense.

To illustrate, here are scenes that illustrate all of these points:

*Barty Crouch Jr. is the son of Bartemius Crouch, Sr., who led the 
trials against Death Eaters during the first war.

Sirius tells us about Barty's reputation and actions back then.  We 
also see him very into rules, which is why Percy likes him.

*Junior was tried as a Death Eater and sentenced to Azkaban...

We see this in the Pensieve.

*...where he cried for his mother.  On his last parental visit his 
mother Polyjuiced herself into him and died for him.

Sirius gives us an eyewitness account of Barty's first night, his 
later quiet, and is burial (though he doesn't know about the body 
switch).

*Barty was kept under Imperius by his father,

We have scenes explaining what Imperius is and how to fight it off.

*and cared for by Winky, but was eventually discovered by Bertha 
Jorkins, who was herself discovered by Peter Pettigrew, who brought 
her to Voldemort, who then zapped and killed her and went to find 
his servant.

Bertha's disappearance is discussed at different points in the 
book.  We see Muggles addled by memory charms at the QWC (and 
elsewhere in the books). We also hear from Sirius and Dumbledore's 
Pensieve that Bertha was a snoop.

*Barty escaped from his father at the QWC, where he was supposed to 
be being watched by Winky while he was under an invisibility cloak.  
He stole Harry's wand and set off a Dark Mark to strike fear into 
the hearts of Death Eaters. 

This all happens in front of us.  We see Winky up in the 
stands "alone," know Harry's wand went missing, see Winky struggling 
with invisible Barty Jr., see Crouch's horror at whatever has 
happened and his firing of Winky over it.

*Hating DEs who went free is a passion of Barty's.  

We see tension between him and Snape in The Egg and the Eye, and see 
him bouncing Draco in ferret form.

*Later, under Voldemort's orders, he Polyjuiced himself into Mad-Eye 
Moody

We hear about the "false alarm" at Moody's house that Arthur covers 
up.

*and taught at Hogwarts during the year.  He slipped Harry's name 
into the Goblet of Fire so that he would be in the Tournament with 
the help of his father, now Imperiused by Voldemort.

Crouch Sr. is acting a bit funny in the post-Goblet scene, and at 
one point even looks evil.  Barty actually says outright exactly 
what's happened (someone's slipped another name into the Goblet). We 
hear a number of times that Crouch Sr. has been skipping work and 
sending notes to Percy instead.

*He tries to give Harry help so that he will win the Tournament.

Not only do we see him sometimes giving advice, we see him invite 
Neville for tea, which he will later reveal was an attempt to get 
Harry the book on gillyweed. (Even something as small as giving the 
book to Neville gets a scene, not an after-the-fact "I slipped the 
Longbottom kid a book but I guess he didn't show it to you--we see 
Barty come upon the Trio when they're comforting Neville after the 
Crucio lesson--yet ANOTHER hint of a secret before it's revealed--
which gives him a reason to think they're friends, we see him invite 
Neville for tea, we see Neville come back from tea.)

*When his father escapes, fighting off the Imperius,

We see Crouch, slightly demented, and again have scenes all about 
Imperius.

*he kills him and hides the body. 

The body disappears and Viktor is stunned.

*Eventually Harry wins the tournament, touching a portkey he's made, 
and is whisked off to Voldemort.

And that's where we came in.

You see?  There's no elaborate plot that comes out of nowhere, 
there's an elaborate plot hiding in plain sight.

Perhaps the one big reveal without a buildup, one that's used far 
too often to back up other theories, is Scabbers being Peter 
Pettigrew.  Scabbers is just an ordinary rat for two books.  
However, in the book where Peter's story will be revealed, Scabbers 
suddenly gets a plot that, as usual, is not what it seems but has 
beats we can follow later.  It's not like he's just been sleeping on 
Ron's shoulder the whole book.  Suddenly he's got the authorial 
finger pointing at him.  

This is maybe also important to show that if a storyline has twists 
and turns, we need signposts when one has happened.  For instance, 
let's say Barty Crouch Jr. decided he'd have to change his plans 
when he saw Harry fight off Imperius.  If that was the plot we would 
presumably not get a scene of Barty communicating this to Voldemort 
or having a soliloquy about it.  That would give it away. What I 
submit we *would* get would be a reaction to Harry's fighting off 
the Imperius that we would later point to and say: "There.  Barty is 
dismayed by Harry's being able to fight off the curse.  At the time 
he hides it and it comes across as him just being flustered, but 
it's clearly really written as dismay.  That's the moment Barty 
began to move towards changing his plans to the Draught of Living 
Death Potion" in retrospect. Similarly, we don't know the mechanism 
of the Vanishing Cabinets, but we did get all those Montague 
references in OotP.  On re-reading, the beginning of Draco's 
storyline in HBP slots in easily.

So there's my thing about this.  With the kinds of complicated 
backstories we get we're not always going to be able to see things 
as clearly as we see things with Barty.  But the answers, imo, are 
always going to be accompanied by that click of fitting things 
together, even if we don't like the way they fit together.  Sure 
sometimes things that you didn't think seemed odd at the time later 
turn out to be signposts--it's fun if it's not obvious the first 
time.  But even then that's going to be because the "real" story and 
the "false" story happen to play the same way.  Or the author will 
use our prejudices and brains against us.  It's not going to rely, 
imo, on the author helping to cover it up from outside the text.  
>From inside the text sure (Harry can draw the wrong conclusion about 
an action, for instance), but if a moment relies on something 
like "Hermione is totally shocked here," we're going to see, in 
retrospect, Hermione showing signs of shock, even if she's covering 
it up. 

(Case in point: "For a fleeting instant, Harry thought he saw a 
gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore's eyes.  But next 
second, Harry was sure he had imagined it
"  This after Dumbledore 
leaps out of his chair at the news Voldemort cut Harry's arm, a 
movement cleverly camouflaged by Sirius' possibly less significant 
exclamation at his Godson's being hurt.)

-m (posts with trepidation)