What Harry "knows", Was Why we'll get no further revelations Snape was Evil

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 169837

wynnleaf:

> And here's the thing Carol pointed out that is sooo cool.

Carol:

Thanks. <blush>
> 
> >Carol: 
> > There's really no point in concealing information about Snape and
his  motives if he's already evil. Harry "knows" that. (And anyone who
wants a red flag to alert them to the presence of the unreliable
narrator, meaning Harry's perception of anyone or anything, not just
of Snape, being wrong, can just watch for the phrase "Harry knew." Or
Harry's promise to himself never to do something again, like his
promise never to interfere in other people's business or spy on anyone
again back in SS/PS. "He would never forgive Snape. Never!" is a
bright red flag of the same sort waved in the reader's face.)
> 
> wynnleaf
> Absolutely correct!  I started noticing this over the thing in OOTP
of "He would never forgive Snape.  Never!"  If ever there was a
promise that wouldn't come true, that just was obvious.  Writers often
use this sort of comment on the part of a character as a kind of "set
up" for that character to be proven wrong.  And clearly JKR has set up
Harry several times with having Harry think he "knows" something or is
"sure" of something, only to discover it just wasn't so, or didn't happen.
> 
> I would love to see a list of all of these in the series.  Has
anyone ever done that?  It's basically what "Harry knew" or what Harry
knew he'd "never" do, or what Harry was "sure" of. 

<snip examples>

> Are there any more?

Carol responds:

Well, you've listed some of mine already, but the "Harry knew" motif
is most noticeable to me when he "knows" he's going to die or be
expelled. Not once has he been right on those occasions (of course).
Another example that jumps out at me relates to the teacher that Harry
thinks is Mad-Eye Moody in GoF:

"...Moody was drinking from his hip flask. Madam Rosmerta, the pretty
landlady, didn't seem to think much of this.... Perhaps she thought it
was an insult to her mulled mead. But *Harry knew* better. Moody had
told them all during their last Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson
that he preferred to prepare his own food and drink at all times, as
it was so easy for Dark wizards to poison an unattended cup" (GoF Am.
ed. 322).

This passage is a lovely blend of fact and fiction (as concerns the
story--I know that it's *all* fiction!). Aside from what Rosmerta
thinks, which Harry is only guessing, what he *knows* is Barty Jr.'s
cover story, the real Mad-eye's reasons for drinking from a hip flask,
which Barty Jr. is borrowing as he borrows Moody's identity,
mannerisms, and magical eye. The real reason that Fake!Moody drinks
from a hip flask is so that he can publicly drink Polyjuice with no
one the wiser. So what Harry know is a partial truth that he mistakes
for the whole truth, a cover story that he's swallowed hook, line, and
sinker. (Okay, that's a really bad mixed metaphor, but you get the point.)

JKR uses a similar tactic when various characters (including Harry and
his friends but not restricted to them) analyze events and
conversations involving other people. Usually, they discover or
stumble onto part of the truth but are wrong in other respects. For
example, Hermione is right that Tonks is depressed but wrong in
thinking that she blames herself for Sirius Black's death. The
conversation that Harry overhears in the Three Broomsticks in PoA is
another excellent example of information mixed with misinformation and
misinterpretations. It's like the presentation of clues and red
herrings throughout all the books). We're constantly being both led
and misled, along with Harry, with his perceptions and preconceptions
becoming ours if we're not careful. And yet, from the moment we learn
that Harry's parents *weren't* killed in a car accident, despite the
narrator's stating it as a fact, and especially from the moment "he
was going to be expelled, he just knew it" (SS Am. ed. 130) turns out
to be false (far from being expelled, he's made Gryffindor Seeker and
given a state-of-the-art broom), we should be alerted to Harry's
knowledge and perceptions being less than reliable.

Carol, thinking that we should watch for instances of "Harry knew"
that haven't yet been disproved (and for implied "knowledge" and
assumptions where the word "knew" is not actually used)