OOP Chapter 2 Post DH look

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182481

Alla quoted:
>
> "I heard -- that awful boy -- telling her about them - years ago,"
she said jerkily. - p.32.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> So who was absolutely positively sure that it was Snape?
> <snip>
> I certainly entertained the possibility as very valid, but was 
willing to consider other candidates. 

<snip overlapping worlds, which I've already addressed>

Carol responds:

Ah, well. I should have known that Harry would get "the awful boy"
wrong (he was right about "*her*" being Lily), but I was dead set
against love for Lily being Snape's motive for protecting Harry and
changing sides. And maybe (I'm not sure) I wanted someone besides me
to consider *James* an "awful boy."

I did, however, like the moment of understanding between Harry and
Petunia, which seemed to show that Petunia did love her sister as well
as resent her (and certainly confirmed what I suspected all along,
that she knew more about the WW than Vernon did). "Remember my last!"
suggested some sort of correspondence between her and Dumbledore that
predated the letter tucked inside baby!Harry's blankets. (DD's "We
have corresponded" in HBP reinforces the idea.) Too bad the
"correspondence" was only Child!Petunia asking to be admitted to
Hogwarts and DD gently letting her down.

BTW, I forgot to mention in response to Alla's post on OoP chapter 1
that JKR has by this point (and possibly by GoF, which begins with a
shift away from Harry's perspective) become much more skilled at
incorporating backstory subtly: No more "Harry Potter was a very
unusual boy" stuff, with a retelling of events in the previous book
for those who haven't read it. Cedric's murder is brought in (very
realistically) through nightmares. References to Dobby are slipped in
in relation to the loud crack that later turns out to be Mundungus,
who's been hiding under an Invisibility Cloak, Disapparating.
Voldemort's return is dealt with through Harry's listening to the
news, expecting to hear about unexplained deaths, disappearances, and
"accidents"--exactly the kinds of things that occur at the beginning
of HBP (so we get foreshadowing along with the backstory). Anyway, as
an editor, I appreciated the absence of undisguised exposition of the
type we get in the earlier books.

Chapter two does the same kind of thing--even the retelling of the
Dementor incident is so interrupted by typical Uncle Vernon and Aunt
Petunia reactions (loved them flapping their hands to shut Harry up so
that Dudley could tell them what happened, as if he, not Harry, knew
what was going on!) And the arrival of each individual owl, except,
perhaps, the one from Sirius, alters the structure of the scene
(Harry's going to leave; Harry's going to stay; Uncle Vernon is
kicking Harry out; Petunia says he has to stay)--very cleverly done, I
thought. Also, Petunia, like Snape and Dumbledore, is pretty good at
coming up with reasons that her listener (in this case, Vernon) will
accept ("the neighbors will talk") but which aren't her real reason
(she apparently knows about the protection that DD has placed on the
house, which will end if Harry no longer calls 4 Privet Drive home).

The slapstick comedy at the beginning of the chapter (Mrs. Figg
hitting Mundungus with catfood cans) nicely balances out the drama of
the Dementor attack (and reminds us that Arabella Figg and Mundungus
Fletcher were mentioned as members of "the old crowd" near the end of
GoF). We also understand why "batty," cat-loving Mrs. Figg has been
inviting Harry to tea (chapter 1) and what the cat was doing under the
car in the same chapter. Harry, as usual, hasn't put two and two
together, but the reader can. And, of course, Mrs. Figg sending
Mundungus to Dumbledore provides a reasonable explanation for DD's
knowledge of the events and subsequent actions, as well as the flurry
of owls--or, should I say, the "peck" of owls--arriving at the
Dursleys' house and subtly recalling the owls of SS/PS.

Carol, appreciating these two chapters from a structural perspective