PoA 20

[pauraque_bk]

In Chapter 19, we had further discussion of whether Sirius would have died for Peter, some brilliant Remus analysis from marinarusalka, and there was a general consensus that Chapter 19 rocks hard.

*cuddles Chapter 19, CAPS and all*


PoA 20: The Dementors' Kiss

Note spelling. I'm afraid I've been guilty of writing "Dementor's Kiss".

This chapter is very short, just six pages. So don't think I'm slacking off. *g*

'I'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle,' said Sirius. (277)

How does he know Harry lives with his aunt and uncle?

Also, starting in this chapter, he's called "Sirius" in narration instead of "Black" -- Harry's accepted him as a person and a friend. Interestingly, Remus is still "Lupin" after he quits his job. And after PoA, "Pettigrew" becomes "Wormtail" in narration, showing how he's dehumanized in Harry's mind.

Silently they tramped through the grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger. [...] And then --
A cloud shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. Their party was bathed in moonlight. (278)

At which point, Lupin transforms. Of course, this does not make sense, though I can't say it stopped me on first reading. If it were actually full moonlight that triggers the transformation, lycanthropy wouldn't be much of a handicap: you could just spend those nights hiding in a windowless room. Obviously, that's not the way lycanthropy is presented at any other point in the book.

The best explanation I've ever heard for this is that in astronomical terms, the moon's exact full alignment begins at a particular moment, and that moment happened to be just when the clouds shifted. The discussion was at prillalar's LJ, here.

Pettigrew had dived for Lupin's dropped wand. Ron, unsteady on his bandaged leg, fell. There was a bang, a burst of light -- and Ron lay motionless on the ground. Another bang -- Crookshanks flew into the air and back to the earth in a heap.
'Expelliarmus!' Harry yelled[...] (279)

As usual, Peter thinks fast in a crisis. If he's going to transform, he has to incapacitate Crookshanks first, but before he does that, he stuns the closest person to him (Ron, still chained to his right hand) to give himself a second, then stuns the cat, and only then does Harry get it together to disarm him, at which point he transforms -- and Harry's not likely to catch a rat in the dark. And remember, Peter heard Snape say Lupin forgot his potion, so as they were walking across the grounds, he may have been planning ahead to when Lupin would transform. If so, he's the only one who thought of it.

Any way you look at it, Peter = capable and not stupid.

It's interesting that he only stuns Crookshanks. I wouldn't expect him to kill Ron -- Ron's been his only friend for years, and the last thing Peter needs is another murder on his rap sheet. But why spare the cat? Perhaps killing him would just waste time and energy, in Peter's mind.

Also, this is another indication that Peter is left-handed, as aristide pointed out. Lupin was chained to his left side (276), so when he lunges for the wand, it's with his left hand -- his wand hand, we assume, since there's no sign of difficulty in using it.

... and in the distance, [Harry] heard the familiar screaming ... expecto patronum ... (281)

On re-reading, suggests a different familiar voice in the distance (his own), casting the Patronus, which appears a moment later. Good one, JKR.


You know, despite the logical flaws (Remus's transformation, the fact that Sirius would obviously not be a good parent to anyone at this stage), this is a strangely affecting section. The emotions ring powerfully true. I don't share Harry's wish to live with Sirius, but I feel it.


Past re-read posts are here.

Comments

[muridae-x.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine said after reading OotP that one of the main reasons (in a literary sense) he saw for Sirius's death was that Harry had Remus and Sirius both as father-figures, and therefore it wasn't necessary to keep them both in the equation.

I felt that even before reading OotP, which is why unspoiled little me had the two of them as joint favourites for being the character to die. On the whole I thought Sirius the more likely of the pair, just because Harry had attached himself so firmly to him emotionally... but I saw the redundancy, and I liked Remus best, so I was on tenterhooks throughout. For all that Sirius's death is touching and tragic, because he's spent so very much of his adult life either a physical or mental prisoner, I confess that my first reaction to it was one of profound relief that it wasn't Remus.

I will be very interested to see if Harry latches onto Remus, the one remaining accessible friend of his parents, in the final two books and gets to know him better. Remus is very much the counterpoint to the wild, rash, impulsive and flamboyant Sirius, and learning to appreciate a quieter, calmer and more cautious character might well be a necessary part of Harry's personal development if he's now got over that awkward angry stage a little.

This, of course, is more reflection on OotP than on PoA. But looking back, it intrigues me to see just how much of the character of both Sirius and Remus is foreshadowed in the things that we learn about them at this point. In PoA they're given a distance - as criminal lurking in the background, and as professor/authority figure - that they don't have in the later books where they're adult members of the same circle, but there's still enough information there for a number of us to have speculated on what the two's character flaws might turn out to be, before the release of OotP... and to have got it right.