New Card Story (was Re: Muggles v wizards redux)

[Jerri/Dan Chase]

No: HPFGUIDX 183283

Potioncat:
Interestingly enough, the thread about the post card is very active a
the OT site. I take it, most of us don't consider it canon? or was it
just a fluke that it took off over there?

Jerri's reply:
I wonder why the discussion is on the OT list?  It is something that 
JKR wrote about the Harry Potter Universe with the knowledge and 
intent that it be available to the public.  Surely it is as On Topic 
as the stuff that she put on her web site or interviews.  (And I know 
that some don't give interviews the same status as the books, but they 
are discussed on the main list.)

And many thanks to Potioncat for providing the cat's opinion on the 
short-short story.  I know that a short-short story is very difficult 
to write well.

This one has so many things left undefined.  I did join and try to 
follow the thread on the OT list.  Someone mentioned Remus and Peter 
not being along, and feeling left out.  And, of course, we can't know 
what was happening.  If J&S were on business for the Order, perhaps 
they were supposed to be decoying the DE's or other bad guys away 
while R&P were somewhere doing something important.  Or perhaps not. 
We can't know.  The golden bird could be a phoenix or it could be a 
snitch seen through the eyes of a muggle.  Or something else 
completely.

The three men on broomsticks could be DE or MoM employees, or almost 
any wizards, angry at some prank J&S had pulled.

So, I guess that this short-short story raises more questions than it 
answers about what James and Sirius were like and what they were 
doing.  One can read the story and imagine background to support just 
about any view.

(I do think that short-short stories can be well done.  One that I 
have always enjoyed is by Robert Heinlein, titled Searchlight.  At a 
guess it is about twice as long as JKR's, but I feel that it manages 
to tell a complete story.  If JKR had put in more explanation and less 
cruel slapstick aimed at the muggle cops, perhaps she could have 
also.)

Jerri