Harry's remark about Kreacher/Should JKR shut up?

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 178593

> Magpie:
> This is getting even more convuluted to me, and it seems like a 
very 
> straightforward sentence. Now Harry's hoping that Kreacher will 
> notice he's gone and take it into his head to fulfill Harry's 
desire 
> for a sandwich without Harry asking? Why would he think that? Since 
> when does he go to bed when he wants a sandwich?

zgirnius:
No, it says his bed *is* waiting for him, and he is *wondering* about 
a sandwich. A certainty (the bed), and a wondering (the sandwich).

This does not seem convoluted at all to me, as it is a straight 
recounting of what I thought when I read the book. The meaning of the 
line as far as I see it that Harry is exhausted and starving. In my 
own experience, when I am in this condition, exhausted wins, hands 
down, and it seems Harry is the same. I am not willing to exert 
myself to get food. Likewise, Harry settles for his nice bed upstairs 
in Gryffindor Tower (the one that we are told is definitely there and 
lying waiting for him) and then it vaguely occurs to him that it is 
possible, if he is lucky, that food will find him anyway through the 
agency of Kreacher (the sandwich that he wonders about whether it 
might appear).

He is going upstairs to sleep, as the passage indicates. If Harry 
plans to summon Kreacher and order the sandwich, why does Harry 
*wonder* whether Kreacher *might* do something? He knows quite well 
that if he orders Kreacher to bring him a freshly baked steak-and-
kidney pie, butterbeer, and treacle tart, these items *will* appear.

If we were supposed to understand that Hasrry was going to order the 
sandwich, I would have expected the passage to read thus:

"thinking now only of the four-poster bed lying waiting for him in
Gryffindor Tower, and of the sandwich he would have Kreacher bring 
him there" 

> Magpie: 
> Honestly, Harry hoping Kreacher will just bring him a sandwich 
> without asking gets into Harry being even more weirdly demanding on 
> his property for me. 

zgirnius:
I do not understand how a vague wish is a weird demand. I like it 
when my boyfriend surprises me with a gift or card or similar 
gesture. If on a day when I am feeling particularly down, I hear his 
car pull into the garage, am I being weirdly demanding when I wonder 
whether today might be a day that he will so surprise me, because I 
want something to cheer me up? I don't see the difference between my 
wondering, and Harry's. 

> Magpie:
> I don't actually consider it that in character for 
> Kreacher to zap himself into his master's bedroom with sandwiches 
if 
> he's gone to bed. 

zgirnius:
I do see proactive services for Harry as in character for Kreacher, 
on the basis of the change we see at 12 GP in DH. In those scenes, 
Harry has more important things on his mind than instructing Kreacher 
in how he would like him to dress and groom himelf, the degree of 
shine the copper pots should have, his preferences in tableware, and 
his favorite dishes. So I presume the fact that Kreacher is neatly 
dressed and well-groomed, the house is sparkling, and Kreacher 
endeavors to tempt Harry's palate with his favorite foods, to mean 
that Kreacher has taken it upon himself to provide for Harry's 
comfort.

> Magpie:
> And then again we're back to Harry nipping down to 
> the kitchen for a snack later when he just said he's thinking about 
> Kreacher bringing him a sandwich in bed. 

zgirnius:
We are not told what Harry might or might not do if it turns out that 
Kreacher does not bring Harry a sandwich. I presume he will sleep, 
because he is very tired, and presume he will thereafter obtain food 
in some way. I could be wrong, maybe he will summon Kreacher. But 
this is by no means a fact stated in the text.