The Eagle Owl/Re: Harry's dreams in GoF

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 166227

Ingrun:

> I cannot remember that either but in the first night 
> Harry spends at Hogwarts (Ps/SS) Harry dreams that 
> Quirrel's turban is speaking to him, it changes into 
> Malfoy, then into Snape and in the end into the cold 
> high voice implicating Voldemort. Harry does not remember 
> the dream the next day but I am sure it will be of importance.

houyhnhnm:

zanooda was kind enough to e-mail me off list with 
the page number for Harry's dream in which Malfoy 
turns into Slughorn who turns into Snape (p. 456, 
Am. ed.).  I was especially interested in that one 
because of my belief that many people in HBP will 
be revealed to have been someone else, including, 
possibly, the person Harry chased across the lawn 
in "Flight of the Prince". <g>

Except for the ones which are clearly due to the 
Voldemort connection, I tend to take the dreams at 
face value when I read them, seeing them only as 
descriptions of Harry's mental turmoil that parallel 
the description of his visceral reactions (to which 
we are treated in clinical detail throughout the books).  
It is only when someone else points it out, that I 
look for symbolism related to the plot.

The dream you cited, for instance, I saw as Harry's 
unconscious recognition of the fact that the WW wasn't 
going to be the fairy tale happily-ever-after place 
his waking consciousness believed it to be.  It took 
place on his first night in the wonderful magical 
castle, but already there were indications that at 
least two people were going to be inimical to him.  
Looking back at it, though, there is no psychological 
reason for p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor 
Quirrell's turban to be involved.  That part is pure 
premonition.

The hp-lexicon has a discussion of Harry's dreams. 
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizworld/dreams.html
Reading it today, I found another I didn't pay too 
much attention to when I first read it, but which in 
retrospect appears to contain an obscure pointer to 
something that happens later in the book.  

On the night Harry was sprung from Dudley's second best 
bedroom by the Weasley brothers, Harry dreamed that he 
was on show in a zoo with a sign saying UNDERAGE WIZARD 
on it attached to his cage. He lay on a bed of straw 
being stared at by people and also by Dobby, who refused 
to help him, responding instead that "Harry Potter is 
safe!" Then the Dursleys were staring at him and rattling 
the bars of his cage. When he woke up, Ron was outside 
his window, shaking the bars to get his attention.

Reading it today, I was struck by the similarity of Harry 
in the dream cage to the snake in the zoo in PS.  It turns 
out, in CoS, that Harry is like the snake in the zoo 
because he is a Parselmouth.

The one that really intrigues me is Harry's dream at 
the end of HBP, in which Dumbledore offered him a rope 
ladder that turned into snakes the moment he began to climb.

Could it be that however DD manages to communicate with 
Harry from beyong the veil in DH, whether through portraits, 
letters, or Pensieve memories, for surely he will,  DD 
will be telling him to turn to the Slytherins for help 
in defeating Voldemort?