PoA 21

[pauraque_bk]

PoA 21: Hermione's Secret

Okay, that just sounds like a dirty mail-order catalog.

'Black had bewitched them, I saw it immediately. A Confundus Charm, to judge by their behaviour. [...] They weren't responsible for their actions. On the other hand, their interference might have permitted Black to escape [...] They've got away with a great deal before now ... I'm afraid it's given them a rather high opinion of themselves [...]' (283)

As neotoma has pointed out, if Snape really thinks they were Confunded, he's being very charitable. However, given that he goes right on to blame them after saying they aren't to blame, I doubt that what he says here is entirely sincere. He's making himself appear charitable to the Minister.

'And yet -- is it good for [Harry] to be given so much special treatment? Personally I try to treat him like any other student[...]' (283)

Of course, this isn't entirely sincere either (or if it is, Snape is very unaware of his own behavior). However, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a kernel of truth in it: Failing to teach Harry self-control could prove extremely dangerous, not just to Harry, but to the world in general.

'[...]I bound and gagged Black, naturally, conjured stretchers and brought them all straight back to the castle.' (284)

While our heroes had no problem dragging Snape along with his head knocking against the ceiling (277), he gave them the consideration of stretchers. Admittedly, he wants to make a good impression on the authorities, but still.

I was puzzled at first why he gagged Sirius, but it makes sense: He didn't want him to be capable of an incantation.

'You surely don't believe a word of Black's story?' Snape whispered, his eyes fixed on Dumbledore's face.
'I wish to speak to Harry and Hermione alone,' Dumbledore repeated.
Snape took a step towards Dumbledore.
'Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen,' he breathed. 'You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me?'
'My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus,' said Dumbledore quietly. (286-287)

Ouch. Snape's desire for Dumbledore's support and approval is very much palpable here -- Snape is asking Dumbledore to choose between him and prodigal-son Sirius, and Dumbledore's choice is very clear.

Harry moved his head a few inches to get a clear view of the distant front doors. Dumbledore, Fudge, the old Committee member and Macnair the executioner were coming down the steps. (292)

'It was tied here!' said the executioner furiously. 'I saw it! Just here!'
'How extraordinary,' said Dumbledore. There was a note of amusement in his voice.
[...]
'Macnair, if Buckbeak has indeed been stolen, do you really think the thief will have led him away on foot?' said Dumbledore, still sounding amused. 'Search the skies, if you will ... Hagrid, I could do with a cup of tea. Or a large brandy.' (294)

We're pretty evidently supposed to think that this Dumbledore, Chapter16!Dumbledore, knows that it's Harry and Hermione who have made off with Buckbeak. If he doesn't, his reaction is very strange.

There was a swishing noise, and the thud of an axe. The executioner seemed to have swung it into the fence in anger. And then came the howling, and this time they could hear Hagrid's words through his sobs. (294)

This is around where I start to get a tachyon headache. It seems that even in Chapter 16, Buckbeak was never really executed, which is consistent with the way the time travel device is presented throughout the chapter.

'Here comes Lupin!' said Harry, as they saw another figure sprinting down the stone steps and haring towards the Willow. Harry looked up at the sky. Clouds were obscuring the moon completely. (296)

Again, this is nonsense. JKR's editor should have gotten this one.

'What happened to the other boy? Ron?' said Sirius urgently. (303)

As soon as Sirius is set to escape, his mind clears enough to think of Ron's safety. However, I suspect he's wondering if Peter's curse killed him, not whether he's all right after being dragged off and having his leg broken by Padfoot.


The time travel device is troublesome for a couple of reasons. One is that it's a deus ex machina -- groundwork is laid for it, in Hermione's exhaustion and odd class schedule, but... what does it have to do with the rest of the book?

Another is that it calls into question one of the primary themes of the series, that our choices make us who we are. Dumbledore warns them seriously that they must not be seen, they must not change anything but what he tells them, etc., but once they actually go back, there's no indication that they can change anything -- they're merely fulfilling the course that's already set for them. If they'd made any small accidental change -- any at all -- I'd have less of a problem with the whole thing.

Narratively, it's a stumbling block. The emotional climax is clearly the Shrieking Shack, and on first reading, I thought the book took a bit too long to end after that. After that catharsis, introducing a major plot point was somewhat exhausting.

My assumption is that the time travel element will be very important later on in the series -- the Knight2King theory, or something equally huge -- or else JKR wouldn't have bothered introducing it at all. But considering PoA as a stand-alone novel, this chapter just doesn't feel as tightly woven-in as the rest of the book.


Past re-read posts are here.

Comments

[threeoranges.livejournal.com]

Has anyone actually asked Rowling about the whole clouds-across-the-moon = Lupin-still-human plothole? If so, how did she explain it?

Order of Merlin

[hagia-sophia.livejournal.com]

What interests me most about this chapter is the way everybody interprets this passage:

"...it was lucky you were there, Snape...."
"Thank you, Minister."
"Order of Merlin, Second Class, I'd say. First Class, if I can wangle it!"
"Thank you very much indeed, Minister."

Why, oh why does everybody interprets this conversation as meaning that Snape really wants the Order of Merlin and it's one of the reasons for doing what he does? What do people see in Snape's words other than a traditional expression of gratitude for a reward offered? If he didn't care about the Order, would he say "No, Minister, I don't want any reward?"? Could he even say that without antagonizing Fudge?

I honestly don't understand why everybody would think that the Order of Merlin is what Snape is after. Of course, he wouldn't object to receiving it, I think, but his primary motive is his hatred for Black and his desire to get revenge. Moreover, Snape is a spy, which is a thankless job, - the work of a spy is rarely publicly acknowledged. And he obviously knows it. So, he does not seem to be the sort of man who would crave recognition from the authorities. Dumbledore is another matter entirely: Snape certainly wants to be approved and supported by him. But Fudge? I don't think so.

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

Narratively, it's a stumbling block. The emotional climax is clearly the Shrieking Shack, and on first reading, I thought the book took a bit too long to end after that. After that catharsis, introducing a major plot point was somewhat exhausting

I agree. This is the only bit of the whole book I'm not happy with and for much the same reasons. I don't like the concept of the time-turner, it makes it too easy to just go back and change things. Ok, so it's essentially a book about a magical world but considering so much of the morality lesson is about making our own choices and acting correctly in the present then this sticks out oddly - it isn't as though readers can suddenly decide to go back and change things they have done.
and I agree it was too much after all the emotion of the Shrieking shack to stick this new idea here.

Snape's desire for Dumbledore's support and approval is very much palpable here -- Snape is asking Dumbledore to choose between him and prodigal-son Sirius, and Dumbledore's choice is very clear
I think this was where I really started to like Snape because I felt so deeply angry on his behalf. I agree that it's not the Order of Merlin that he's after so much as justice and the fact that his wishes/suggestions have once again been ignored and trampled on and done so in front of other people; he's being humiliated again. It's yet another example of Dumbledore's mishandling of someone's sensibilities. I always like to think he had a one-to-one with Severus later and calmed him down!

On choices and how they make us who we are...

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

Another is that it calls into question one of the primary themes of the series, that our choices make us who we are.

Actaully, it does not. See, the kids have the nifty trick here in the book of choosing to go back and save Sirius. But note taht later, in OOTP, the past will not be kept at bay, and unless there is a Guardian of Forever, people choices still continue to haunt them. Snape does not chooses to forgive his past and trust a young person who needs his help, Sirius and Remus choose to view Snape with contempt, Dumbledore chooses to go on arrogantly, not trust Harry and not see that maybe Snape's and Sirius' emotional states were astonishingly fragile. No time turner can take away courses of thinking that lead to actions.

[maidenjedi]

Oh, I think the Time-Turner will show up again. Even the Mirror of Erised had a greater purpose than just making us feel bad for little Harry.

The question is, of course, how will it show up, and to what purpose? And what, if anything, was it's greater purpose in the earlier parts of the book?

I think the answer to the second question has to do with Hermione. Because of her sleepiness, she did out-of-character things that we later see as very much a part of what Hermione is willing and capable of. Slapping Draco, yelling at Trelawney and walking out of class - these things are not what 11- or 12- year old Hermione would have done in those situations, but 14- and especially 15- year old Hermione would have. Draco's lucky that she lost her cool at this point and not later on - she would have toasted him.

Her unwillingness to test the limits of what she could do with the Time-Turner is evidence, however, of her restraint at this point. She could get more sleep, for instance, if she turned back time in the mornings. But she doesn't. She could have "saved" Scabbers, she could have found out how Sirius was getting into the castle, and any number of other things. The importance of *not* doing those things wasn't really impressed on her - it was just the idea that changing time could be dangerous that stopped her. The idea of breaking the law. Dumbledore might have given McGonagall the idea to let her have the Time-Turner as a way of seeing what she would do with that kind of power in her hands every day. And at the end, showing her that sometimes breaking the law and bending the rules can be necessary to save people or otherwise do good is a way of letting Hermione loosen up a bit, and ultimately unleash the more "brilliant but scary" side of herself.

Overall, the Time-Turner as the major plot device in this book (other than the Map, and Animagus tranfiguration) serves as a clue to the major theme of this book - looking into the past. In order for the series to move forward, for Voldemort to return and for war to break out in OotP, the past has to be dealt with. Sirius' return and eventual death are what distinguish this war from the first. Harry is not James - from this point on, that has to be stressed again and again, and with book 6, he gets to move past that part. The Time-Turner is a metaphor for the way time changes things and evens the playing field.

Snape and Dumbledore

[arwencordelia.livejournal.com]

Snape's desire for Dumbledore's support and approval is very much palpable here -- Snape is asking Dumbledore to choose between him and prodigal-son Sirius, and Dumbledore's choice is very clear.

Snape has suspected since the first time Black entered the castle that Lupin is somehow helping him get in. The one time he speaks of this to Dumbledore, though, he is dismissed by him with a look that Harry (who overhears the conversation from his sleeping bag) reads as saying "the subject is closed;" and this is not the most observant of kids.

Also throughout the book, Lupin and Snape seem to antagonize each other, with Lupin playing no small part in this (I went on long rant on this on my LJ, too long to include here, but Lupin more than does his part to aggravate Snape, in my opinion, though he's polite and pleasant to his face).

And then comes this chapter, where Snape, for all he knows, is finally vindicated. Having been unconscious for the crucial part of Lupin's explanation, he still believes Black to be a murderer and Lupin his accomplice. Instead of an explanation, and maybe even some recognition for his part in saving the kids' lives, Dumbledore stands there and twinkles (as was mentioned in a comment above). He gives the impression that he finds the whole situation funny.

I would also like to think, like asphodeline, that Dumbledore straightened Snape out later, but there's no indication that he did so. At the end of GOF Snape doesn't act like someone who knows the truth about Black (though I think he did know in OOTP). Dumbledore only says at the time that Black is there at his invitation, as is Snape. That statement, and Dumbledore's words to Snape in this chapter, sound like a barely veiled way of saying "you owe me, you have secrets of your own, so do as you're told and don't question my decisions."

Dumbledore has said more than once that he trusts Snape. It seems to me, though, that Snape has to work very hard and put up with quite a lot to keep that trust. And this is after many years of having worked for Dumbledore and been, as far as we know, more than trustworthy. I think he justifies telling Lupin's secret partly by the fact that Lupin irresponsibly forgot to take his potion, and partly by Dumbledore's failure (again!) to protect his students adequately from the werewolf.

[amythis.livejournal.com]

PoA 21: Hermione's Secret
Okay, that just sounds like a dirty mail-order catalog.

Snicker! But on a more serious note, the title implies Hermione has only one secret, whereas I see her as keeping a lot of secrets from Harry and Ron, in POA and elsewhere.