Another Timeline Problem

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 174888

> Christy:
> I have no canon to support what I am about to say and Snape was
dying when he gave Harry his memories (however, no doubt Snape was a
powerful wizard) ... perhaps Snape gave the memories in the order he
thought it best for Harry to view them.

Carol responds:
The memories seep out of his head and eyes in no sort of sequence and
Harry randomly stuffs them into the vial that Hermione has conjured,
yet I agree that they're the specific memories that Harry needs to
enter in order to understand both Snape and the message Snape is so
desperate to give him. They're also necessary so that Harry will
*trust* Snape, understand that he's DDM and that the memories are not
some sort of trick played on him by a dying man. There are no
extraneous memories of Snape and Voldemort or young Severus and his
parents or even of the eavesdropping, which I would have liked to see
but which Snape perhaps realized, even as he was dying, would
interfere with his purpose in communicating to Harry.

Once the memories are poured into the Pensieve, however, they seem to
arrange themselves in a coherent chronological sequence. It's only
after reading them (and reading the chat transcript) that we realize
that the letter scene is out of sequence. As for the Worst Memory and
the so-called Prank, I think that we as readers placed the SWM before
the "Prank" either because we thought that it showed a mor noble James
or because we thought that the Prank was the trigger that led Severus
to join the DEs (wrong on both counts). There's no canon evidence for
that sequence except that JKR refers to James as fifteen during the
SWM. If the March birthday in DH is correct, however, James, like
Severus (born in January) would have been sixteen at the time of the
OWL exams in June. (So would Remus, born in March according to JKR's
website,  and Lily, born in January according to DH; Peter's and
Sirius's birth months are unknown.)

The adult Snape refers to the so-called Prank as occurring when Sirius
Black was sixteen, which may be the reason why we assumed that it
occurred later, but chances are that, unless he had a summer birthday,
he, like the others whose ages we know, was sixteen near the end of
fifth year. Or Snape may be assigning his own age at the time to a
classmate (much as DD refers to Harry and Hermione as "two
thirteen-year-old wizards" when Hermione has been fourteen since
September. (BTW, I've always wondered how Krum could already be
eighteen in August and yet still be in school.)

The choices are A) the memories are chronological except for two that
appear to be out of sequence or B) the memories are random except for
about sixteen that are chronological. The first seems more likely. If
any really are out of sequence, I think it's because JKR forgot the
original or intended sequence.

I'm not trying to nitpick, just noting that JKR's math can't be
trusted. She also has Severus writing at least one spell used in his
fifth year in his sixth-year Potions book. As I said before, will
someone please send JKR a calculator? And a calendar with moon cycles
on it while we're at it? 

The strength of the books is obviously not in their consistency. I've
spotted other continuity errors (and a typo that the proofreader
should have caught), but I see no point in bringing them up here
except to note that we shouldn't read too much into numbers and
sequences in JKR's books. What's important about this Pensieve memory
is that it serves as a recognition scene or reversal of Harry's
previous view of Snape (and some readers'). It provides the truth
about Snape (not as simple as some posters seem to want to make it)
and the "truth" about DD and Harry's confrontation with LV that will
lead to Harry's choice to sacrifice himself (not a choice that he's
realized he would have to make until he receives Snape's message).

With regard to Snape, I see it as a beautiful counterpoint to his
terrible and tragic death. Ironically, understanding comes too late,
but it comes, and his last act is as much a stroke against Voldemort
as Neville's killing of Nagini. "Fighting in the shadows," as Pippin
so beautifully put it, is still fignting and requires just as much
courage as openly confronting an enemy on a battlefield (which I'm not
sure that Snape, branded as a DE by the Order members, could have
done, however great his duelling skills--and I don't doubt them for a
moment).

As for the order of the memories, which I realize I'm supposed to be
discussing, JKR was shouldering the heavy burden of finishing a
massive literary work, and if it didn't have flaws in it, she wouldn't
be human. I, after all, can't even keep to the topic of a post about a
sequence of memories!

Carol, noting that JKR also seems to have forgotten that Muggles can't
get onto Platform 9 3/4 (or else I'm misreading the memory!)