Lily's Letter was Epilogue (was Re: Ron and Parseltongue)

[zanooda2]

No: HPFGUIDX 183520

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:

> I read it the way you did at first and it confused me too. It wasn't
> until I heard Jim Dale's reading that I realized there's another
> interpretation.


zanooda:

Well, I listened to Jim Dale, and his reading didn't change much for
me :-). But I think I understand what you mean. You want to say that
when Lily writes "Harry is not old enough to know it's his birthday"
she doesn't mean *this* particular birthday. It's more like a general
statement, kind of like "A child this age is unable to distinguish
between a regular day and a birthday (or Christmas, or Forth of July,
or any other holiday :-))". 

If that's what you mean, I agree that it's possible to understand it
this way (I think :-)), and thank you for giving me at least *some*
explanation, although I admit that I still don't like it, sorry :-).
Having an explanation (even if it doesn't satisfy me completely) is
much better than not having any :-). But nothing can change the fact
that Lily's letter still sounds like "right-after-the-birthday" to me
:-). If it was October, wouldn't she at least mention Sirius's long
absence? There is nothing there, nothing at all. Where is "I'm so glad
you are safely back", where is "We were worried about you"? 


> Pippin wrote:
 
> It makes a lot of other things easier to explain if Sirius had been
> away for a good while, for instance, why the Fidelius wasn't
> implemented sooner, and why Sirius didn't seem to be aware that
> suspicion had fallen on him. 


zanooda:

If Sirius was on a long mission and only just returned in October, why
didn't he bring the present himself? He was back, wasn't he? Why not
come and check on his friends after such a long absence? It still
seems to me that Sirius couldn't come to Harry's birthday, but he sent
the broomstick instead, right then, in August, and not three months later.