The two-way mirror - a cruel useless plot device

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 163710

Alcuin wrote:
> 
> That to me is one of the most unbelievable things in the whole 
> series.  Given how close a connection Harry and Sirius had forged, 
> there's *no way* Harry could have forgotten about that mirror.  
> Imagine your very best friend giving you a cell phone before you leave 
> for a 6 month trip, saying "Call me anytime on it."  Who among us 
> would forget we have the phone?  That's one point where I simply
can't suspend disbelief.  JKR really goofed on that one.  If I were
Harry I would have been chatting it up with Sirius every day through
the mirror.
>

Carol responds:
Harry didn't even know it was a mirror. He never opened the package
until it was too late. His reason: He didn't want Sirius Black to come
out of hiding to defend him against Snape if Snape gave him a hard
time (the whole reason that Black gave him the mirror). "'Okay,' said
Harry, stowing the package away in the inside pocket of his jacket,
but he knew he would never use whatever it was. It wouldn't be he,
Harry, who lured Sirius from his place of safety" (OoP Am. ed. 523).
Hence the irony, since using the mirror would have *prevented* Black
from leaving 12 GP. Look at the wording. It's like "He would never
forgive Snape. Never" in the same book. It just jumps out at the
reader, or at least, a reader like me, as something Harry knows or
believes that will be proven false. It drips with irony. And "Harry
knew" is also a signal that something isn't quite right. Harry "knew"
that the reason Fake!Moody drank from his own flask was that he feared
being poisoned. Only that was the real Moody's reason. Fake!Moody was
drinking Polyjuice Potion, which Harry, of course, *didn't* know. In
this instance, Harry *does* try to use the mirror to contact the dead
Sirius, and it *is* Harry who inadvertently lures Sirius to the MoM,
in part because he *didn't* use that mirror when it was needed--not to
protect himself against Snape, who (IMO) really is trying to teach him
Occlumency as DD wishes, but to detect Voldemort's lie.

So I see plenty of irony but no reason to suspend disbelief. It's
perfectly in character for Harry to act as he did, feeling no need for
adult interference in his lessons with Snape (who, after all, had
never actually harmed him), yet, paradoxically, feeling protective
toward his godfather. And, of course, never having opened the package
in the first place, it's perfectly in character for Harry to forget
that he had it in his trunk, just as he forgot to take Black's knife
with him for the Second Task and forgot that Ron had given him gold
(which turned out to be Leprechaun gold) at the QWC and consequently
didn't notice that it had disappeared. The mirror was not given to him
for chatting--as I said above, it was supposed to be a way to contact
Black if Snape gave him a hard time. (Black had a hand in making the
Occlumency lessons less effective than they might have been, arousing
Harry's suspicions of Snape. Thanks a lot, Sirius. If Harry had
listened to Snape and blocked the dream, Black would be alive. That,
too, is ironic.)

Carol, fearing that Harry won't realize his various mistakes when he
finds the pieces of the mirror in his trunk but expecting him to
repair it and put it to use, regardless