Once more - with questions. part 3.

[Barry Arrowsmith]

Third part, third book.
Another look back, and oh, boy - what a tangled skein
of plot threads and questions this one throws up, leaving
one to suspect that Jo was manufacturing dust by the 
barrow-load to throw in our eyes.

In those dear, distant days when PoA was the latest tome
on the shelf (and long before I was aware of the existence
of HP boards for adult, well, adultish readers) a proto-Kneasy
was already wallowing in conspiratorial contrarianism, though
by necessity of a solitary nature. Made up for that since by 
inflicting all manner of heretical notions on the gentle 
members, though there are a few ideas that haven't yet 
appeared in public. It would have been fun arguing them 
with other fans at the time, but there's a weight of canon 
piled up against them since. Pity. Maybe one day.... as a 
demonstration of deviationist thinking.   

It's not my favourite book of the series, but so far as plot
presentation and management is concerned it's got all the
bells and whistles anyone could wish for. There's so much 
going on in there that it's not easy to tease out and dissect
the constituent parts in isolation; everything seems to 
connect with, depend on, and impinge on, everything else. 
So if one happens to form an opinion about, say Lupin, then
that will probably have a sufficient knock-on effect to affect
conclusions drawn about Sirius, or Peter, or DD. And these 
opinions tend to persist, even when later canon contradicts
them quite strongly. 

First impressions of characters matter a lot when one is 
struggling through the plot undergrowth of books like HP,
even though they shouldn't. We're well aware that the author
isn't to be trusted, that she's doing her damnedest to 
deliberately confuse and confound. Yet still we fall for it. 
It's a desperate searching for something, anything, that will
provide a firm-ish base on which to construct some sort of
comprehensible framework into which one can slot pieces as 
they turn up. 

It's such a comfort to have first principles that start with: 
"Right. Well, since we're dealing with Puppetmaster!DD / 
Creep!Sirius / ESE!Lupin / Justified-in-being-a-miserable-old
-bastard!Snape / Misunderstood!Peter / Fake!Sybill (delete as 
applicable) then what's probably happening is this...." 

Most of these fairly common biases crystallised or were 
confirmed in fan minds through PoA, and once formed have
been remarkably tenacious, colouring perceptions of story arc
and sub-plots through the following books, sometimes in the
teeth of later sympathetic authorial treatment of those same 
characters. 
And it follows that how many of the questions that one may ask
of HP are then framed is probably largely dependent on, and 
closely allied to the character assessments that one has 
constructed while devouring a text like PoA. To others, those
with different assessments, they're non-questions, and 
suspiciously akin to the output of fevered imaginations and 
skewed thinking.

PoA has a lot to answer for, IMO.

So, what have we got?
Well, the Kneasy Knotes on PoA run something like this:

1. You can't trust Sirius.
He's been really bad news for anyone named Potter, even 
during his Hogwarts days. Such friends one can well do without.
Usually, after a bit of a battering from the real world, the scales 
drop from the eyes of most blokes and school-friends like Sirius
get down-graded to a-pint-once-in-a-blue-moon level; not for 
James, though. Nope, Sirius and his bloody brilliant schemes 
were still tolerated if not positively welcomed, resulting in the 
almighty cock-up of the SK / GH incident. He's been such a 
disaster that it's difficult to believe it wasn't intentional. 
Be interesting to hear Lily's assessment of Sirius. 
Bet it wasn't very complimentary.

His 'escape' from Azkaban was a fix.
Having been responsible for wiping out the previous 
generation of Potters, he's going for the full set by being 
(perhaps unwittingly) an accomplice in a little ploy to slot 
Harry onto the working end of a spiritual vacuum-cleaner. 
The 'unwitting' bit hardly matters, though. He's so bloody 
predictable that anyone with an ounce of cunning could wind
him up like a clock-work mouse, just let him go and could 
pretty-well depend on him to run in straight lines to just where
they want him to be and to behave just how they want him to 
behave. 
Pillock. 
No, I'll rephrase that - an egotistical, grand-standing, 
self-justifying pillock with unjustified delusions of adequacy. 

2. There's something significant we haven't been told about Lupin.

For starters - there's his name. It's too apposite. I'm convinced
he's using a nom-de-chien, which is supported to a certain extent
by the fact that the only other werewolf we've met has the same 
sort of oh-so-descriptive cognomen. Follow that with the glossing
over of what form his Patronus takes, his immunity to Dementor-
induced misery and the very casual, off-hand way he greets Sirius 
in the SS. Twelve years estrangement/separation? `you'd never 
know it, it's as if they'd parted only yesterday. 

(BTW - does anyone really believe that a trio of teenagers could
have made something as sophisticated as the Marauders Map?
Given their activities, wouldn't they have been inclined to include 
the Shrieking Shack in there too? Altering an existing model to 
provide the front-end insults to Snapey - possibly. But make from 
scratch? Nope. And has no-one else ever wondered if there's not 
another version of same - maybe sitting in DD's office?)

3. Peter could well be one of DD's little helpers - and may have 
been one for years. Interesting that during Sybill's funny turn she 
states "... the servant has been chained these twelve years [...] will 
break free.." it implies a lack of choice, that Peter had been compelled
by a third party to play the role of Scabbers during all that time. 
That's assuming that the prophecy is about Peter....

4. From what we're told, Sevvy probably got a very raw deal over 
Shrieking Shack I, and in his position I'd probably be even more 
pissed off than he is.

5. And DD was busy in the background pulling the strings.
DD is the thread that connects the aspects of the plot - as usual. 
Any interpretation of the book at more than face value depends on
what one thinks he did or didn't do, what he knew or didn't know.

For instance, does anyone think it's a coincidence that Lupin was 
recruited as DADA prof. for that year?
'Course it wasn't.
Sirius is on the loose, Harry and Peter will be at Hogwarts and who
is probably the only person around that has connections with all 
three? Lupin. Oh, there's DD himself, of course, but he never gets
directly involved unless he absolutely has to. He likes to keep 
things at arms length.

Most of the outstanding questions turn, to a great extent, on 
the character assessments that have been formed in fan minds. 
Well, they are for me, anyway. I'm looking for confirmation rather
than enlightenment and frankly, it won't take much to bolster my 
HP suspicions to damn-near certainty. 
(Never claimed to be fair or objective after all.)

So, give me the low-down on a few quite short passages and I'll 
know whether I'm barking up the wrong tree or not. Does anyone
need anything more? And, for example any insight into Peter's true
role would go a long way in helping to resolve other murky bits too.
Sirius, for instance. 

Why was Peter hiding in the milk-jug in Hagrid's hut?
How long had he been shacking up with Hagrid?
Why with Hagrid? How much does Hagrid know?
Really surprising that when Hermy finds Scabbers there are no 
words *at all* on this odd situation from Hagrid. Dunno though. 
He is DD's man after all. What with the trio arriving unexpectedly,
diving into the milk-jug could have been a panic move. Wonder 
what form he was in immediately prior to their knock on the door?

At the climax Peter becomes Scabbers and scampers off - but in 
which direction?  Does he sneak back into Hogwarts before heading 
off to Voldy? I've always been a bit leery about DD's magnanimous 
"Yes, it's better to let him escape" vignette. Can't help but think he's 
got an on-going undeclared vested interest in keeping Peter free and 
away from the business end of vengeful wands.

Snape - we'd all love to know what actually happened at SS I, but in 
the meantime - what did Sirius tell Sevvy -  and why would Sevvy 
believe him? 
Be interesting to learn how DD kept Sevvy's mouth shut, as well.

Sybill?
No questions.
She's under DD's 'fluence.

Kneasy