Truth or consequences

[nkafkafi]

> Gul Plum AKA Richard wrote:
> <snipped>
> One thing I noticed quite some time ago is that as far as I 
> can tell, both the eventual baddie(s) in each book and those set up as 
> potential candidates for the role never actually lie. I'm open to being 
> proved wrong on that observation, but Quirrell, Snape, Tom Riddle (and 
> Ginny, his tool), Sirius and Peter, the Crouches and Umridge (and the 
> authorial voice) all leave us to draw our own conclusions about their 
> behaviour, but the unmasking of the evil-doer is never a case of having 
> been caught out telling an untruth (which is far from the norm in
mystery 
> stories).


Neri:
I think this is a fascinating observation. It's not 100% correct, but
very nearly so. It's surprising how much time it took me to find any
counterexamples. The best I could find is this sentence by Diary!Riddle:


CoS, Ch. 13, p. 241 US: 
"I caught the person who'd opened the Chamber and he was expelled".


Crouch!Moody is extremely difficult to catch in a lie (unless it's
something we already know to be untruth, which according to your rule
doesn't count). A nice example of his (or JKR's) sneakiness is this
sentence:  


GoF, Ch.25 p.476 US:
"Put it this way. Potter, they say old Mad-Eye's obsessed with
catching Dark wizards... but I'm nothing - nothing - compared to Barty
Crouch."


Had he said "they say *I'm* obsessed with catching Dark wizards..." it
would have been a lie. This one certainly was a "close shave" as
Crouch!Moody himself would put it. The clearest untruth I could come
up with for him is rather weak. It's these words he says to Ron:  


GoF, Ch.14 p.211 US:
"Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago"


In the end we discover that Crouch!Moody barely had time to drink the
Polyjuice when Arthur came to find out what was the commotion about.

Pettigrew lies several times in the Shack, but that hardly counts, as
by then he was already exposed and none of us would believe him (well,
except for a few conspiracy theorists). I couldn't catch Quirrell,
Snape, Lucius Malfoy or Umbridge in a single lie. Lupin comes close
but not quite there when he says "I was a bit off-color lately and
this potion is the only thing that helps". 

This can't be a coincidence. JKR must put a considerable effort into
the statements of her suspects. And as Richard wrote, this is highly
unusual for a mystery book. I have two possible explanations: in the
plot level, it could be that there is indeed a magical penalty to pay
for uttering an untruth, and this is going to be a plot point in Book
6 or 7. In the meta level, maybe JKR is trying to compensate us for
the fact that her mystery plot takes place in a world that we as
readers don't know very well. 

Neri