JKR/Oprah interview

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 189646


> 
> Kathy:
> I'd like to see a HP prequel because there are so many unanswered questions. For example: How did James and Lily fall in love? What exactly led Peter to betray his friends? I'd love to know more about Neville's parents as well. I want to know more about Dumbledore and his actions prior to HP. Did he try help Sirius prove his innocence, or was he content to leave him in jail? How closely did he watch Harry before he turned eleven?
> 

Pippin:
What I got from DH, especially the forest chapters,  was JKR showing us that in her world   even the life of a superhero in deadly danger can be tedious at times. So I guess I feel that the explanations that we get are enough for me because more detail wouldn't necessarily be more interesting. Magic, it turns out, doesn't make the world a grander, finer place, not once the novelty wears off. 

 James and Lily were, from the brief glimpses we get of their married life, as happy as any two people can be in the shadow of war and sorrow, but that doesn't mean they ever had a grand passionate romance. James, we are told, just grew out of being a berk. Like babies grow out of being rugrats and chickens grow out of being eggs. It takes a notable effort on their part, but that doesn't mean a story about  it would be interesting. 

The same might be true of Neville's parents. Their story is evidently not the stuff of legend, and if it was, it would probably turn out not to be true. <g>

Canon says that Peter betrayed his friends for the not-interesting reason that he was a coward. It would be more interesting if he were a coward who didn't betray his friends (but that's Lupin and Draco) or a brave man who did betray some people he cared about, like Snape or Dumbledore. 

As for Dumbledore, if you recall what Sirius says, Crouch sent  a lot of people to Azkaban, many of them  less obviously guilty than Sirius Black, trial or no trial.  If Dumbledore was trying to free anybody, it would be them. There wasn't a reason on earth for him to think that Sirius was innocent before the night of the Shrieking Shack. He wasn't the sort to have eternal faith in the goodness of his friends, not after what happened with Grindelwald.

We know Dumbledore kept close enough watch on Privet Drive to make sure that the DE's weren't able to get in.  As long as they couldn't, Harry was safer in than out. No matter how poorly the Dursleys treated Harry, Petunia wasn't about to let him die and leave Dumbledore with no reason to keep her secret any longer. And keeping Harry alive was what Dumbledore cared about, and all that he cared about, until he and Harry got acquainted. 

Pippin