The two-way mirror - a cruel useless plot device

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 163719

> > Pippin:
> >  Sirius gave the package to Harry secretly, out of sight of the
> > other Order members. I don't think he wanted Lupin to know about 
> it.
> > Sirius might have thought Lupin would object, especially if 
there 
> were
> > other mirrors, one of which might still be in the hands of Peter
> > Pettigrew. 
> > 
> > I think Sirius's air of secrecy contributed to Harry's impression
> > that using the gift would put Sirius at risk, and he didn't open 
> the
> > gift so as not to be tempted by it.
> >
> 
> Alcuin:
> 
> But the note on the reverse-side said it was a two-way mirror, and 
> Sirius had the other one.  One has to assume that there aren't any 
> others that would have posed a risk.  I can't see that Lupin would 
> have made a fuss about it, other than to give Sirius one of his 
> disapproving looks.  Besides, were I Sirius, I would have to 
think: 
> what's more dangerous, Lupin knowing about the mirrors or Harry 
> taking all kinds of risks to talk to Sirius through the flue 
> network?  He should have told Harry to use the mirror next time, 
> regardless of what Lupin would think.
> 
> Looking at the text, it wasn't Lupin that Sirius was concealing 
the 
> mirror from when he gave it to Harry; it was Mrs. Weasley, and we 
> know that Sirius and Mrs. Weasley never saw eye to eye when it 
came 
> to Harry.  I don't think Sirius had any reason to fear Lupin's 
> finding out about the mirror.

Magpie:
Okay, but these are all looking at things in retrospect as if 
proving that Pippin's mistaken about Lupin makes everything Harry 
does unreasonable. But was the scene really unreasonable as written? 
I didn't think so. I thought JKR right along made Harry's actions 
perfectly logical. 

Sirius *did* have reason to give Harry the gift surreptitiously, 
because the whole theme of his story in OotP was him trying to find 
little ways to be involved while everyone else kept telling him to 
stay put in the house--the Weasleys were a symbol of that in that 
scene, but it was bigger than that. Rather than make it obvious that 
he was keeping his nose in the whole Occlumency idea (because he, 
like Harry, just couldn't completely trust Snape) he slipped Harry 
the gift. He puts it in the context that Carol described, 
where "using" whatever the present is is about "calling" Sirius if 
things get too hot with Snape during the lessons--it's an emergency. 
And we're told that Harry rejects the whole idea because he doesn't 
want to call Sirius for help.

So it's not like Harry's throwing away a present. Sirius has told 
him, in general terms, that the present is a way to call Sirius to 
his aid and Harry is making a vow to himself not to do that, so puts 
the present away. As Steve said, we probably all make little 
decisions like this all the time. There's no good in after the fact 
going over how much better it would be if we hadn't. If JKR had 
never explained Harry's reasoning for putting the present away it 
might be a hole, but as it is I don't think it's a problem. It's 
okay if we the reader remember the present and are shouting at Harry 
to use it, because the author has completely explained why Harry 
himself isn't thinking about it.

Sirius, as has been said, doesn't have time to say everything he 
might have wanted to say to Harry. Sure he might have said, "Why 
aren't you using the mirror I gave you?" as soon as he sees Harry, 
but it's just as believable for him to just react to what Harry is 
saying first, since Harry's the one who called him. If somebody 
calls you and urgently needs to speak to you, you might listen to 
them before you think about how they should have used the cell--
especially since the mirror was not being given to Harry as the way 
Harry should communicate. 

So to me it seems like all these ways Harry could have behaved are 
fine, but that the way he himself behaved (and Sirius too) weren't 
bizarre either.

-m