A Whisper About Time-Travel

[davewitley]

Pippin wrote:

> The shoot downs generally contain a mystery or two...why was it 
>  important that Mark Evans have a common name? Who "sent" the
>  Lestranges?

The Lestranges are a good example of your point, but I feel the Evans 
one illustrates mine.  We don't know that it was important that he have 
a common name.  I think JKR is merely describing the process of 
inventing a name for a minor (Muggle or Muggle-born) character: it 
seems she grabs a name at random and uses it, presumably checking for 
clashes with other characters, and perhaps with the thematic use of 
names (e.g. Black).  Names like that tend to be common.

The point being that if you are expecting clues or mysteries, pretty 
well anything she says will contain them.  Personally, I feel the 
Neville quote is teetering on the edge of revelation - she says as 
much - but the Evans one, the Flamel one, and the Time Turner one can 
be taken at face value.

Yes, it *could* have been important that Evans have a common name, but 
we need some way to escape circularity of argument, otherwise we merely 
reproduce the assumptions we bring to the text.

David