[TBAY] Re: ontongeny recapitulates philogeny?

[or.phan_ann]

No: HPFGUIDX 170501

Ann scratches her head and gives up. No matter what she does, she 
can't bring the old words back. She sighs, manacle heavy around her 
ankle, and eyes the summer sunshine longingly. Oh well. Maybe 
tomorrow.

'How's it going?' asks Faith, adjusting the positions of the six 
published books on the Predictive Orrery. 'George won't be pleased if 
you ruin it before he has a chance to read it.' She glances 
over. 'Stuck? Well, how were you repairing the message to begin with?'

'Sewing it together,' says Ann, glaring at the needle and thread she 
was using. 'Wait a minute... thread?' She picks it up, mutters a 
single word, and with a slight pop several parchments appear on the 
desk. As they do, the manacle opens itself and crashes to the floor. 
Ann grins. 'Now, what have I here?' She leafs through the pile for an 
unread message, and furrows her brow. On top of the pile is Message 
170478, signed only "-m", and complaining that

Magpie:
>Err...we don't know that Lucius told Draco any such thing. 

Ann dashes off to the CoS Room, and returns a moment later with 
defeat on her face. 'A very palpable hit,' she complains. 'If I'd 
only been able to check. But it's the nearest equivalent to what 
Bart's proposing, isn't it?' Turning to Juli17's message, she 
nods. 'Exactly. I admit I'm not sure what an "ideal mix of friends 
is", but I agree with the rest. Now, what's this?'

> Bart:
> Occam's Razor is, "Do not unnecessarily multiply entities." Harry 
> Potter comes up with an ideal mix of friends. He is also being 
> shepherded along by a master manipulator. Now, either there was an 
> incredible coincidence that he came up with that particular set of 
> friends, or the manipulator arranged it. Now, of course, there is  
> yet another master manipulator, aka JKR, but I hope that she did   
> not just to decide to have an incredible coincidence.

Ann snorts, and gazes longingly over at the Razor. 'The "ideal mix of 
friends" again. Now, whatever that means, surely it's determined by 
the people Harry has a chance to meet. Given that JKR populated 
Hogwarts, doesn't that suggest she placed Harry's ideal friends 
there? This granted, why not manipulate him so he becomes friends 
with them? What's the point otherwise?' She coughs. 'And he's trying 
to tell me what the Razor is. Cheek! Well, what else would he use it 
on? Let's have a look at these manipulations.'

'Manipulations?' asks George, just come in. 'Ah, a new thread... 
let's have a look.' Ann waits demurely as he does. 'Oh, you have made 
a fool of yourself here, haven't you?' he tuts. 'Anyway, what were 
you going to say?'

'Mm? Oh!' Ann giggles. 'Well, ah, it's about the Razor we're both 
trying to use. Just because someone is a manipulator doesn't mean 
they manipulate everything, does it? It would be absurd to suggest 
that Dumbledore stage-managed Sirius' escape from Azkaban so the 
Order could use Number Twelve as a headquarters, wouldn't it?'

George nods. 'Especially since Voldemort was still on the run at the 
time,' he says, 'so the Order had no use for it.'

'And Harry's other friends,' says Ann, unabashed. 'Dean is another 
half-blood Gryffindor boy. That sounds like a good bet for a friend, 
doesn't it? But if there was any manipulation there, it failed. The 
same with Neville, who's very similar to Harry - they were both 
orphaned and brought up by unpleasant relatives, for instance. 
There's no Earthly way anyone could predict Harry becoming Luna's 
friend, yet there she is in the Ministry of Magic. Now, Ron and the 
other Weasleys.'

'Dumbledore knows them,' says George. 'And he would certainly have a 
shrewd idea that Molly would make a good substitute mother for him.'

'Oh yes,' admits Ann. 'Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, meeting Ron. That 
looks about as accidental as Harry's meeting Draco in Diagon Alley. 
Sorry to bring him up again, but why not assume that this was an 
introduction too? Now, what does Bart say about Harry's meeting Ron?

Bart:
> Timing things so that he would meet the Weasleys at the platform   
> would be easy enough [snip] "Arthur, could you see that your family 
> gets to the platform at 8:55 AM on the dot? I have something on my 
> mind, and may want to meet you there." [snip] Dumbledore figured   
> that nature would take its course, and Harry, exposed to Ron, would 
> make friends and end up getting into Gryffindor. 

Ann continues, 'If Harry was directed to meet the Weasleys, his 
arrival would have to be controlled - and there's no evidence of 
that - and the Weasleys would have to be manipulated into arriving at 
the right time, too. That's wildly unrealistic, given that there's 
hundreds of families milling around and no reason for Dumbledore to 
meet Arthur there. Not at such a precise and inconvenient time when 
the Order of the Phoenix was dormant. And why would getting into 
Gryffindor be so important? House does seem to be often genetic, but 
both Harry's parents were Gryffindors too.'

'And Hermione?'

'Even less evidence! Harry doesn't like her at first. I don't see how 
this helps the theory:

Bart:
> Even at age 10, Hermione showed herself to be highly intelligent,  
> and quite capable of doing research (how many purebloods and half- 
> bloods knew as much as she did, coming in?). Also, a shrewd        
> observer. And, she knew a bit too much about Harold and Mort 

Ann smiles. 'Intelligence, research, and observation? Sounds more 
like a spy than a friend to me, particularly given what we know of 
Harry's character. Meanwhile, that last point, well...

Bart:
> my point was not that Dumbly chose Hermione because she knew too
> much about Harold and Mort, but that she knew too much about Harold 
> and Mort because Dumbly told her.

Ann jabs a finger at the parchment. 'Pure guesswork. No canon for 
that at all. So I see neither reason nor canon support for Dumbledore 
choosing Harry's friends for him. Coincidence is the simplest 
explanation for why Harry has the friends he does. Particularly given 
that it would be much simpler for Dumbledore to arrange an 
introduction to potential friends. Besides, if he was so concerned 
about Harry's friends why didn't he do anything for him while he was 
at the Dursleys'? And now I wash my hands of this. I am going to 
paddle in the Bay.'

And she does.

Ann
P.S. Real-life note: I said in my last message that I was hundreds of 
miles from my books. I had to visit the bookshop to check CoS, so I 
hope you appreciate my capitulation, Sistermagpie. :)