Once more - with questions. part 1

[Barry Arrowsmith]

WYSIWYG.
Usually.
Question is, how usual is HP?

Twist things around a bit, look at things differently
and guess what? What you get is a chance to be perverse. 
Whether the perversity will actually be *helpful* is 
something else again, but if it isn't then stirring the pot
is a decent second-best. We've been trying for years to 
second-guess an author who by her own admission 
enjoys playing the trickster, so it's unlikely that all the 
sneaky bits have been uncovered and explained. There 
should be loads we haven't sussed out yet; in fact, I'll 
be bloody disappointed if there isn't.

Mind you, it's possible that the misdirection has been 
so slick that we'll be lucky even identifying where and 
when the slight-of-hand occurred, let alone finding the 
right pea under the shuffled shells. Results are by no 
means guaranteed: sometimes you'll giggle at a 
ridiculous idea, or the fog gets even thicker - though 
at other times you may indeed get an insight.

It's what my old Pop called "going at it upside-back'rds",
or by others as never accepting the obvious when the 
alternative looks more interesting. Not the same as 
presenting a fallacious argument IMO, which is more 
about employing, inadvertently or otherwise (naughty!) 
faulty logic, a very different kettle of fish. Nor is it a 
phallacious argument -  that's what you'd call a daft 
idea proposed by a dickhead.

No, the main objective is to question whether you've 
got the right or wrong end of the stick to start with, 
are you looking at it the right way, 'cos if you haven't 
and aren't, logic won't help much. It tends not to when 
one starts from false premises. And it's a question 
well-worth asking, what with Jo chortling into her 
writing pad while planning to throw dust in our eyes. 
Of course we won't know whether she succeeded or 
not until July. Dunno about you, but come the end, I'd 
really like to be able to say that there were a few pieces
of her trickery that I'd seen through... assuming they 
are trickery....um.

Another point worth thinking about. In the earlier books
our appreciation of Harry (or whoever) and the WW was
less developed than it is now - but that wasn't the case 
for Jo. Except in maybe a few instances she knew from 
the beginning what the characters were up to, their 
strengths and weaknesses, what they could and couldn't 
do and when she was going to reveal these little nuggets
of knowledge. We didn't. And when those nuggets 
gleamed in the dawn of a bright new morning, our first 
inclination has been to try to figure out what they mean
for the future, using them to re-assess the past tended 
to come a long way second. IMO we just don't dig 
backwards nearly enough, we tend to take for granted 
that the earlier books are more or less sorted - except 
for on-going mysteries such as the nature of House-
Elfdom or what actually happened at GH, or the missing 
24 hours, or whatever. 

There are incidents where the majority (probably) of fans
consider it's all cut and dried, nothing more to be said, 
not worth going over that again. Boring. Maybe. Maybe not. 
So with a few months before the denouement it might 
help pass the time to look at a few scenes or situations 
in the light of later revelations. Can't hurt, might even help. 
Besides, there are a handful of episodes that niggle, little 
itches, mostly small stuff. You don't mind if I have a bit of 
a scratch, do you? Only one itch per post.

First up, from book 1 - The Mirror of Erised - or should 
that be eriseD fo rorriM ehT? 
And from there to other conclusions - possibly.

We're encouraged to believe that gazing into the Mirror 
will give a reflection of what the viewer desires most. 
First point that occurred: You mean he doesn't already 
know what he desires most? He's never spent hours 
thinking about it? 
Second - if Harry doesn't know what his parents and 
family look like, how come the Mirror does? Harry didn't 
even know that the other family members shown had 
ever existed, so how come the Mirror plonks 'em in as 
buckshee bonus background and classifies them as 
'hearts desire'?  Must have one hell of a database in 
there, puts Google in its place, that's for sure. 

And why is the inscription back-to-front to the viewer? 
"'Cos it's mirror writing, half-wit!" came the reply. 
"Yup. I can see that," says I, "but  why have mirror writing
on a mirror which would require another mirror to read it?
Seems a bit redundant to me."

Right. 
Now apply the upsides-back'rds potion and look at it again.
Change the basic premise.
The inscription would be perfectly intelligible to someone 
on the other side of the Mirror, i.e. inside looking out.
The Mirror would show what *they* desire rather than 
that of a viewer standing in front of the Mirror.
What a nifty device for manipulating the unwary.
Like Harry, Ron and Quirrell. 

Down the trapdoor, bound hand and foot, facing 
Quirrell and at his mercy, it was not Harry's hearts 
desire to smile, wink at himself, pull the Stone out 
of his pocket and then slip it back in again. Quirrell 
could see the Stone in the Mirror, but Harry hadn't 
the slightest idea of where it was or how to find out. 
And the best way to stop Voldy from snaffling it is 
for Harry not to know - what he doesn't know, he 
can't tell.

Yet suddenly he's lumbered with it - and  Voldy, ace 
Legilimens that he is, knows it too. Not a very clever 
ploy, then. Ah, but if we'd known then what we know 
now, it puts a very different complexion on it -  just 
as it did to Quirrell. 
Harry's protection, his Voldy proofing. 
Voldy-ridden beings can't touch him, so it's perfectly safe. 
Unless Quirrell acts sensibly and uses Accio! 
Which he doesn't. 
So - painful collapse of two-faced creep, applause all 
round - paff, paff, paff, "Well done, Harry old thing. 
You saved the day" 


But Harry didn't know about the protection either, he'd
never dreamed that he'd be encountering Voldy, didn't
want the damn thing in his pocket and his dearest wish
was probably to get out of there and warn somebody 
grown-up that there was a spot of bother in the cellars
and can they sort it out, please? 
Conclusion - the  Mirror is under someone else's control
and is showing what that other person wants Harry to see. 
Wonder who it could be?
Must be someone who knows about the protection and 
knows that Harry has already encountered the Mirror and 
knows what it does.
Guess who?

In the WW mirrors are not passive, they're invariably 
some sort of communication device - they may vary - 
from the sarky comments from the mirrors in the Leaky 
Cauldron and GP to Sirius' linked pair, but communicate 
they do. What sort of communicator is the Mirror? 

The developing argument ineluctably leads to the 
conclusion that it was all a set-up, planned in advance. 
There're a lot of fans that'll be shuffling their feet with that.
Understandable - on more than one level - it implies that 
Harry is not quite as free an agent as they would like, and
that DD is a manipulative old bastard. Welcome to my world. 

One of the dangers of theorising is gilding the lily. Coming
up with a neat idea based on scanty though indicative 
evidence is one thing; desperately grabbing at any old 
ambiguous snippet and claiming that it supports the case 
is a risky temptation that's difficult to resist. Not to be 
recommended though, all too often it can weaken the 
over-all argument rather than strengthen it.

However (he said, in a blatant attempt to hijack a few bits 
of text and weasel them in as supportive evidence) the 
following are worth considering as suggestive, IMO. 

Harry is 11 years old, new to magic and the WW and 
there are those at Hogwarts that wish him ill - the bucking
broomstick shows that. (Did anyone ever make any inquiries
about who was responsible for that? No? Odd.)
Yet DD sends him an invisibility cloak with the advice "Use
it well." (Was that wise, do you think?)
So he does. And finds the Mirror. In a room whose door 
just happens to be ajar. Hm.
(Note: Fluffy has been on guard since Day 1 of the term. 
Were the other safeguards in place too? Bet they were. 
Why wasn't the Mirror?)
DD appears (eventually), tells Harry that he (DD) doesn't 
need a cloak to be invisible - and we get strong hints in 
CoS that DD can see through the cloak. So how did he 
know that Harry was sitting in front of the Mirror? An 
alarm of some sort? - or was he following Harry to make
sure he didn't run into problems?
DD tells Harry that what the Mirror shows is not necessarily
true, real or even possible. "If you ever do run across it, 
you will now be prepared." 
Yup. A nod is as good as a wink to a thingy whatsit.

Hagrid is a key figure in the affair:
He's been DD's gopher for years, he does whatever DD 
wishes him to do, and DD knows him and his weaknesses 
better than anyone else. He also likes Harry - a lot. He'd 
make a marvellous foil if DD wanted to lead Harry 
around by the nose, don't you think? A conduit for 
information that Harry would never question.

It's while with Hagrid that Harry learns that a special 
something is being taken to Hogwarts from Gringott's.
It's Hagrid that Harry (plus Ron and Hermy) visit frequently.
No other pupil does so as far as we can tell.
It's in Hagrid's hut that Harry sees a clipping about the 
Gringott's break-in. (A clipping? Why would Hagrid cut 
that out - and leave it where Harry could see it?)
It's Hagrid that lets slip the name Flamel.
It's Hagrid that lets slip that he has accidentally told a
mysterious stranger how to get past Fluffy - and does the
same for the trio.
The trio hardly need to be rocket scientists to figure out 
what's going on, do they?

And so three 11 year olds dive down the trapdoor.
The puzzles are not particularly easy ones to solve - for most
11 year olds, that is. For an experienced nasty-type wizard 
it's unlikely they'd be much of a problem. Hardly magical at all, 
most of 'em. And they play to whatever strengths the trio have;
wheedling Hagrid; Hermy - remembering lessons and basic logic;
Ron - chess; Harry - flying. There's even a troll (a challenge 
they've successfully faced before) though this one is hors de 
combat. Could hardly have been better, could it? Like an exam 
where you've been asked the questions previously.

And afterwards - the DD snow-job.
Lovely.

Yet after all that it seems that the best protection the Stone
could have *against Voldy* was Harry. He was probably the one 
obstacle Voldy wouldn't be able to get past - so long as Harry 
physically had the Stone.
Wonder if DD realised that?
Must have done - the protection thwarted Voldy at GH, didn't
it? 
Why change a winning formula?
And win it did. Harry 2 - Dissoluted Voldy 0.
So just how much of a coincidence was it that Harry turned up
when he did and that the Stone slipped into his pocket?

Can't help being suspicious.
Just goes to show, express doubts about how a plot device 
really works and who knows where you'll end up?

Kneasy