... The Prank

[GulPlum]

Last post of the night (hopefully a short one...)

At 00:46 04/06/05 , Neri wrote:

<Huge context snip>

>May I humbly (heh!) point out that all this wonderful lit analysis
>depends on one critical assumption: that there's a story here.
>Something with three acts, a protagonist, an antagonist, etc. This is
>a rather big assumption considering all we have on The Prank (even
>this title is a pure fandom invention) is less than one page in large
>font. I suspect we might be mistaking a peace of the setting for a
>whole play. Plotwise, the whole purpose of the Prank might be to have
>Snape owing a life-debt to James while still hating James and the
>Marauders more than ever. That it. Mission accomplished. All the
>inconsistencies only suggest to me that JKR never put much thought
>into it, and had never imagined we would pick it apart so obsessively.
>I won't be surprised if all we get on the Prank will be one additional
>page, which will perhaps solve an inconsistency or two and will
>probably introduce several new ones, but none of the major points will
>change.
>
>Remember, JKR have only two books left. She doesn't have enough room
>in there for a whole prequel with six major characters (at the very
>least the four Marauders, Snape and Lily) and still keep track of so
>many characters in the here and now.

Boy, do I disagree!

Not because I want there to be more details of The Prank (TM) for any 
personal curiosity, but because, thematically and plot-wise, it's 
absolutely necessary.

At this point in the series, after a lifetime of revering his father's 
memory, Harry knows he was a jerk. The basis for his reverence was a 
handful of post-analysis hindsight-enhanced hyperbolic unspecific stories 
from people like Hagrid, Dumbledore and others. This was shattered by an 
account of his behaviour when he was Harry's age which is not only an 
eye-witness recollection, but for want of further details of the Pensieve's 
functionality, an objective and detailed view of events which took over 
eight pages to tell. Of course, Harry has been assured that this is not the 
memory of his father which he should maintain, that he became a better person.

Harry therefore has to witness, in at least the same detail, an act of 
redemption, in order to restore his faith in his parents. Whether it's 
Snape's, Dumbledore's, Lupin's or some as yet unknown witness's memories, 
Harry has got to relive at least one moment of James being the brave and 
honourable person everyone says he became. Seeing as the Prank (TM) has 
already been introduced to the plot-line, it makes sense for this event to 
be the representative act of redemption required. Not doing so would make 
JKR an even worse writer than some people maintain she is. (We also need a 
detailed account of what happened at Godric's Hollow, but that's a 
different matter.)

It would be pointless and counter-productive for JKR to leave the 
James-Snape relationship in its current state if Harry is to understand 
what his parents went through (which, given JKR's love of parallels, is 
only too likely). I'd like this also to be the catalyst for Harry and Snape 
to sort out the problems they have with each other, but that, perhaps, is a 
little much to ask. :-)

The fact that there are only two books left is neither here nor there. I'm 
sure that after GoF, people would have thought that JKR didn't have the 
time or space to undermine the way Harry thought about his dad, either (if 
they'd known it was going to happen).

--
Richard AKA GulPlum, who fully expects to be having Potterverse-themed 
dreams tonight having spent most of the day thinking about it...