GoF 2

[pauraque_bk]

In Chapter 1, we had talk of DA/DE parallels, whether Lucius is the "wealthy man" (or not), and the "curse"/"murder" editorial snafu in the US edition.


GoF 2: The Scar

Harry lay flat on his back, breathing hard as though he had been running. He had awoken from a vivid dream with his hands pressed over his face. The old scar on his forehead, which was shaped like a bolt of lightning, was burning beneath his fingers as though someone had just pressed a white-hot wire to his skin. (20)

I don't think we ever find out exactly what was happening here. He wasn't experiencing V's thoughts/feelings, but observing events first through an abstract narrative voice, and then through Frank's POV. Once he wakes up, he has a hard time remembering the details of the dream. This isn't the first time Harry's had clairvoyant or prophetic dreams and then failed to remember them properly -- I know there's one in PS/SS that's something about Snape and Voldemort, and one in PoA where he dreams he's chasing a stag (before he knows about Prongs).

I think this may be just an ability Harry happens to have, and that the fact that his scar hurts even in clairvoyant perception of Voldemort is secondary. Divination of all kinds has often been downplayed and ridiculed in the books; it seems that most wizards don't appreciate how it really works, and how rare/difficult it is. I wonder if Harry will recognize this ability in himself, and try to consciously use it. It'd be an interesting topic for a fic, at least.

No, the thing that was bothering Harry was that the last time his scar had hurt him, it had been because Voldemort had been close by ... but Voldemort couldn't be here, now ... the idea of Voldemort lurking in Privet Drive was absurd, impossible... (23)

Suggests the moment when that barrier really is breached, when the Dementors appear in Little Whinging in OotP. I still think we might be heading for an ending where the Muggle and magical worlds are openly reconciled in some way... Harry starts by divorcing himself as much as possible from the Muggle world, but in OotP and HBP is increasingly confronted with the reality that the two worlds mutually influence each other. That rift is the heart of the plot conflict, and I think it's close to the core of Harry's internal conflict as well.

I'm very drawn to the observation some have made that Harry is like many abused children in that he has an elaborate fantasy world he can escape to when reality becomes too unpleasant; the main difference is that Harry's is real. As he gets older, misery and danger encroach ever further into his "fantasy" life, finally reaching that crisis point where he can no longer separate them, and will have to take action to bring the confidence and friendship he's gained in the "fantasy" world into (Muggle) "reality".

Harry had been a year old the night that Voldemort -- the most powerful Dark wizard for a century, a wizard who had been gaining power steadily for eleven years -- arrived at his house and killed his father and mother. (23)

A century? Grindelwald, you just got dissed!

In PS 1 I was bothered by the curiously specific references to Voldemort having been on the rise for "eleven years" (as opposed to ten years, or a decade, or more than a decade), and here it is again. There must have been some particular event from which people are counting the years of V's rise to power, perhaps a notable attack that made people wake up to the fact that something was wrong.

The heavy-handed exposition carries on here for quite a while. Totally unnecessary, especially given that by the time GoF was being written, the series was very popular and widely followed.

Harry kneaded his forehead with his knuckles. What he really wanted (and it felt almost shameful to admit it to himself) was someone like -- someone like a parent: an adult wizard whose advice he could ask without feeling stupid, someone who cared about him, who had had experience of Dark Magic... (25)

Wow. He's actually ashamed of himself for missing his parents and wishing for the help of a loving adult. It's not often we get overt references to Harry's neuroses like this.

He covers his reasons for not wanting to talk to the Dursleys, Dumbledore, or Arthur Weasley, and eventually settles on writing to Sirius. There's no mention of the possibility of writing to Remus Lupin. It's interesting that those two aren't closer than they are; Lupin was an adult Harry knew and trusted for a whole school year, whereas he's only known Sirius for two months (and only after believing him to be a murderer, etc). At the end of OotP, Lupin asks Harry to keep in touch, but that doesn't happen. In HBP, Harry complains of Lupin not writing to him, but has he ever made an effort to stay friends?

Remus seems to behave in a more fatherly way to Harry than Sirius, who tends to act more like a brother. And Harry accepts that; when Remus chastises him in PoA for being out of bed, Harry is penitent, not angry. I wonder if Harry is responding to Sirius's intense emotionality, as compared to Remus's withdrawn, self-protective demeanor.

Harry had received two letters from Sirius since he had been back at Privet Drive. Both had been delivered, not by owls (as was usual with wizards) but by large, brightly coloured, tropical birds. (27)

And his letters sound cheerful. I really appreciated the realistic attention paid to Sirius's downward spiral in OotP; it's his pleasant and mature behavior in the intervening book that seems aberrant to me.

They told [Dudley] they'd have to cut his pocket money if he keeps doing it, so he got really angry and chucked his PlayStation out of the window. (27)

There's an extremely thorough article on HPL covering the anachronistic PlayStation and basically everything else you'd ever want to know about what years the books take place: Mapping the Harry Potter Timeline by Troels Forchhammer (which is a great name).


Previous GoF posts are saved in memories here.

Comments

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Dude, Grindelwald was just a Nazi, man. Voldie has Klansmen Death Eaters.

Sorry, but those damn hats.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

This isn't the first time Harry's had clairvoyant or prophetic dreams and then failed to remember them properly -- I know there's one in PS/SS that's something about Snape and Voldemort, and one in PoA where he dreams he's chasing a stag (before he knows about Prongs).

I can't remember if he knows his Patronus when he has that dream, but it makes me wonder if they're not Prophetic so much as just his mind working out the connections while he's unaware of it.

The Voldemort thing gets more confusing once you know some of his backstory, because he was "rising" for quite a while, it seems. When did people date it from themselves?

The Sirius vs. Remus thing is really fascinating. I wonder if it's a little author bias there, that she just doesn't see Remus as a fantasy parent. Or maybe it's just to lead up to Harry not knowing about Tonks and whatever happens to Remus next. If they were close friends Harry would probably notice something about that ship. Still, I thought it was funny, too, when Harry suddenly wished Remus would write when he never had before, and Harry had never missed it. He attached himself to Sirius immediately.

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

Sirius's cheerfulness in GoF can probably be attributed to his being out of England, in a warm, sunny place (as unlike Azkaban as you can get), without the entire wizarding world and his mother's evil portrait on his back. But he never gets a chance to heal properly -- the second he's back in England, effectively imprisoned once more -- and you can't tell me that Grimmauld Place isn't as bad for him as Azkaban -- he falls apart once more.

You know, I can see why Grimmauld Place made a great place for the Order to hang out, but it's a shame they couldn't keep Sirius somewhere else. I expect they needed him around to control Kreacher and stop the house from destroying the intruders, but still.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_hannelore/]

I wonder if Harry is responding to Sirius's intense emotionality, as compared to Remus's withdrawn, self-protective demeanor.

Since Harry can certainly exhibit both, he seems much more ashamed to disappoint Sirius (OOtP) than when he disappoints Remus. But I think it's mostly because he just thinks Sirius is just hotter than Remus. :D

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

What he really wanted (and it felt almost shameful to admit it to himself) was someone like -- someone like a parent

This line makes my heart break every single time I read it.

Given how obsessive I can be about timelines, it's a bit odd that the PlayStation bit has never bothered me. I think I want my story to have internal consistency; I don't care so much how it actually attaches to any given calendar. You can throw in the occasional six-day week, or tell me it's 1992 and two years later tell me it's at least 1995, no problem. Anything involving the characters -- *then* I get picky.

Which is why I wonder about the eleven years. As you said, it seems to imply that there's some particular event they're dating his rise to, but that doesn't seem to work. Eleven years is an awfully long time to be "steadily" rising, given that by the end of that time, the list of dead and disappeared seems to be, well, reasonable. Certainly by the end, people had good reason to be terrified of him and the Death Eaters, but it doesn't make sense that they would be at the beginning of his rise to power. Every time it's mentioned though, that seems implied -- at the start of PS, Dd says they've had "precious little to celebrate" for eleven years. As I analyzed in my JKR-needs-a-math-beta post, the *earliest* the Weasleys could have married would have been the very start of that eleven years. That would suggest more that he'd burst on the scene suddenly in some sort of 9/11-like incident. That doesn't work with the idea that he'd steadily *gained* power after that; if he had, then by 1981, he really shouldn't have had any remaining opposition to speak of. Also, the death toll would presumably have been high enough that people wouldn't feel compelled to list specific crimes for the different Death Eaters, or, as Hagrid did in PS, list a handful of people killed by Voldemort as a way of explaining how evil he was.

The treatment of Remus is a bit odd. He seems to be an out-of-sight, out-of-mind character for the most part. Maybe he felt like he'd be overstepping some boundary to contact Harry, or he didn't know if Harry wanted to keep in touch and wasn't going to risk rejection, effectively (though in a non-slashy way), by being the one to initiate communication. Harry may have felt the same way, plus he thinks of Remus as "my favorite teacher" and Sirius as "my dad's best friend", which certainly colors his attitudes towards them, much as he may *know* that they were both close with his father and that they both care about him.

I like your analysis of the boundary between Harry's fantasy and real-life worlds. You don't watch Buffy at all, right? I'm reminded of an episode that suggested the entire series was a complex set of delusions (by Buffy, who was in a mental hospital) that had built ever higher, but were starting to collapse. Very different from this since, as you said, Harry's fantasy world is real, but the parallel is interesting.

[amythis.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad you're doing a read-through again, since I enjoyed the first three. (Mostly read months after the fact.)

A century? Grindelwald, you just got dissed!

I've always wondered who the 19th-century wizard was. And Dumbledore was a young man of about 50 then. Did he battle him as well?

Re Sirius and Remus, note that Harry doesn't think of him as "Remus," he's Lupin, while Sirius is Sirius immediately.

I always liked the detail of the tropical birds, esp since till then letter-carriers = owls.

[penny-sieve.livejournal.com]

In PS 1 I was bothered by the curiously specific references to Voldemort having been on the rise for "eleven years" (as opposed to ten years, or a decade, or more than a decade), and here it is again. There must have been some particular event from which people are counting the years of V's rise to power, perhaps a notable attack that made people wake up to the fact that something was wrong.

Hi, here by way of hogwarts_today, and I was somehow struck by the similarity between Voldemort and Bin Laden.
Bin Laden was quietly seeking supporters and resources for over 2 decades before he became a household name as the most wanted terrorist of all times.
I think similarly, Voldemort was rather quietly seeking his supporters and creating his horcruxes, until possibly 11 years before Harry's birth, when he decided to come out openly to declare his dominance over the wizarding world.

[pauraque]

No, he doesn't know what his Patronus is at the time of the dream.

It frustrated me that we saw so little of Remus in HBP, since his storyline seemed so much more important than a lot of what was actually focused on (I mean him going undercover with the werewolves, not the thing with Tonks). The idea of Voldemort gaining the support of oppressed/marginalized creatures has been building up steam for a while, but it came to very little in HBP. The Pensieve scenes we got were wonderful, but I'd have wished for a scene of Remus's memories of hanging out with Fenrir, while we were at it. (Hm, another good fic idea.)

[pauraque]

Yeah, I can appreciate the effects of location. (My own mood is pretty much pegged to the weather.) I guess it's really Sirius's maturity and responsibility in GoF that bother me; it seems to come from nowhere, given that he was incarcerated at a young age. If it had been up to me *g*, I'd probably have had him cheerful, but given him some odd/worrisome things to say -- had him give Harry poor or incongruous advice.

[pauraque]

Of course! Harry'll do anything for a pretty face. :D

[pauraque]

If they're really going to dress like that in the movie, it'd make the scene of Harry's escape carrying Cedric's body a bit more believable. It's probably not that easy to run in a pointy hood half as tall as you are.

[pauraque]

Well, this time you can follow along as we go! Good to have you.

Re Sirius and Remus, note that Harry doesn't think of him as "Remus," he's Lupin, while Sirius is Sirius immediately.

Yes, that's definitely relevant. Harry still thinks of Remus as his teacher, not as a friend or a father.

[pauraque]

Yeah, I was thinking along those lines too. The "eleven years" stuff reminds me of the way we say "in the past four years", and it's understood that we're talking about 9/11/01. Given the taboo against saying Voldemort's name, perhaps people are also reluctant to specifically name the date or event they're referring to.

[penny-sieve.livejournal.com]

You're right. Just as 9/11 is synonymous with the worst terrorism act on US soil, that particular time in the wizarding world could have been synonymous with Voldemort's worst act of persecution. The event that actually led people to fear his name.

[pauraque]

This line makes my heart break every single time I read it.

I had no recollection of it! That's why I have to do these close reads, otherwise I'd never get this stuff.

As I analyzed in my JKR-needs-a-math-beta post

Ooh, where's that?

No, I never have watched Buffy, but yeah, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. It's been touched on in other TV series too; Star Trek certainly comes to mind.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

The math post basically focused on this issue with when and why the Weasleys got married and the relative ages of the Black sisters -- basic summation, there's no way in heck that Bellatrix was the oldest, unles JKR screwed up something else rather significantly.

[des06.livejournal.com]

Looking at the times when Harry needed Sirius's advice in GoF, they were usually hot spot moments. There was a flare up and a crisis-like situation occured. In OotP the situation progressed and escalated slowly. Sirius is better in a crisis where things need to be dealt with quickly and quick decisions need to be made than he is in a long term developing situation. Or at least that's my take.

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Re: Dreams

He's going to have a similar one later on in a Divination lesson, and this time he thankfully will go straight to Dumbledore's office. I've seen a theory before that this ability is related to having Lily's eyes, but after HBP I had sort of written it off as a Horcrux-head thing.

Re: Remus Lupin

Again, by HBP I'm used to this, but I did find it really surprising in the beginning of GoF, right after PoA.

Re: Shame of missing parents

Maybe this is here to rub in how really awful Rita and her quill are later?

Re: Demeanor of Sirius

I reckoned that was there to show that Sirius could have had a chance at happiness if he only could have been free, and that it really was the House of Black that was driving him batshit. Bummer!

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Re: the Buffy episode--there actually is at least one pretty good HP fic inspired thereby.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

That really bugs me, I have to say. Especially in the OotP Pensieve scene, where the four friends are James, Sirius, Lupin and Wormtail--it sticks out annoyingly.

[nakedcelt.livejournal.com]

What he really wanted (and it felt almost shameful to admit it to himself) was someone like -- someone like a parent...

And what Sirius really wants (and wouldn't he be ashamed to admit it to himself?) is someone like -- someone like a best friend. Odd, that. Dumbledore says (HBP) that Sirius and Harry should have had a "long and happy relationship", but how happy could it be when each is using the other as a substitute for James Potter?

[pilly2009.livejournal.com]

That would suggest more that he'd burst on the scene suddenly in some sort of 9/11-like incident. That doesn't work with the idea that he'd steadily *gained* power after that; if he had, then by 1981, he really shouldn't have had any remaining opposition to speak of.

Is it possible that what is meant by "gaining power" is merely another way of saying he gained support, or larger ranks of Death Eaters? A large group of people can be a powerful force even if their actions and ideology are unpopular, right? This could be what Peter Pettigrew meant in the Shrieking Shack: "He was too powerful, what was there to be gained by resisting him?" (Not an exact quote)

It may not be an issue of political power at all. I find it interesting that the two strongest superpowers in WW!England are Dumbledore's forces and Voldemort's forces, not the Ministry of Magic as would probably be expected. The followers of both DD and Voldie (with, from what we've seen, the sole exception of Snape and Regulus) are extremely loyal and steadfast, if not always a hundred percent efficient, which contrasts sharply with the power of the Ministry (rampant with corruption and suspicion of treachery). It makes a bit of sense, since Dumbledore didn't have to enter politics to gain considerable power within the wizarding world, so it's interesting that Voldemort did not take that route either.

[pauraque]

Right, Oscillate Wildly. That's marksykins on LJ. I haven't read it, because sometimes stories about mental hospitals upset me, but I've gotten over that a bit lately, so maybe I'll finally give it a whirl.

[pauraque]

What stops me from agreeing here is the fact that Sirius died in a crisis situation. Of course, you could also say that his drawn-out suffering impeded his natural ability to think clearly in a crisis.

[pauraque]

In OotP, Remus says that in 1981 Voldemort's forces outnumbered the Order twenty to one, which lends credence to the idea that when they say he's gaining power, they mean he's gaining followers.

[pauraque]

The naming is certainly most pointed in that scene, since you get not only "Lupin", but also "Wormtail" -- and even young!Sirius and young!James say "Wormtail"! I don't think anyone calls Remus by name in that scene, do they? And it's interesting in that Remus keeps a certain distance from Sirius and James, silently disapproving of their behavior.

[pauraque]

Re: Dreams. I suspect it's Lily-related too. Eyes, Seeing.

[pauraque]

Yeah, I definitely hear that. Dumbledore isn't exactly known for his astute perceptions of other people's psycho-emotional problems, so I think he probably believed his own lie there.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, none of the friends call each other by name, only by nickname. The third-person labelling's still pretty discordant, though.

[pauraque]

Oh, is that right? I shouldn't have lent out my copy of OotP, my memory isn't reliable enough to handle it. :P

[jessicaqueen.livejournal.com]

During every reading of GoF after the initial one, I mentally puzzled over the fact that Rowling addresses the first chapter from the gardener's point of view, only to have Harry awake as if his dream played out the scene exactly as we saw it. I comtemplated: is he, in fact, some kind of Seer, and is the fact that his dreams are usually about Voldemort just coincidence? It doesn't seem so, from what information canon has more recently given us about the bond between Harry and LV.

Thus, I've come to assume that Harry did actually experience the scene through Voldemort's eyes, but that kind of activity within the bond was too new and unfocused to allow Harry to feel Voldemort's emotions. He couldn't possibly realise from whose POV he was seeing everything without that extra clue, especially when his memory of the scene seems so precarious. Furthermore, exactly how much of the first chapter Harry bore witness to is undisclosed, meaning the last part, during which Voldemort was present may be the true extent of it. The fact that Harry seems to know when he wakes up that the man sees a hideous little creature in the chair when he wakes may be because Voldemort's own interpretation of his current form has bled over to a degree into Harry's own knowledge.

Therefore, I daresay that the gardener's point of view is merely a device to distract us from the intimate bond that exists between Harry and V, as we aren't meant to know about that until later. It's all a bit odd, but I admit that there really wouldn't have been a better way to address such a problem when writing it.

Also, I suggest that Harry hasn't actually exhibited clairvoyance before. The burnings of his scar are all related to his bond with V. His dream about Snape, Quirrel and Voldemort in SS/PS may be a similar result of Voldemort's connection to him; Voldemort knows the truth about Quirrel, and through their bond Harry also subconsciously knows it. Also, I vaguely recall that the dream of the stag may have come after Harry cast his first Patronus (correct me if I'm wrong). Perhaps he someone did subconsciously recognise the form of his Patronus before it become fully obvious. Alternatively, he has random memories of infancy, as shown by his memories of the flying motorcycle in SS/PS. It would be a fair assumption that James transformed in front of Harry at some stage while he was still alive, especially since Harry recognises a stag as a protector figure for an otherwise unknown reason. He probably subconsciously made that connection.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Mine wasn't either--fortunately I hadn't lent out my copy. ;-)

[biichan.livejournal.com]

I have this big-ass theory that Grindelwald was collaborating with the Nazis (who were largely Muggles) and so the DEs are sort of a response to that, because the Damn Evil Muggles were in it with Grindelwald, weren't they?

And if they do really go for the Leather/Burlap Klansmen look I will be amused. Vaguely embarassed, but amused.

[aithopa.livejournal.com]

I think Harry is just muddled about the first chapter, and so in turn are we: it's possible he could have been seeing through V's eyes, then forgot it, along with any other details of that scene our keen reader selves latch upon.

Pre-HBP, I always assumed that after being Tom Riddle and before returning as Voldemort proper V just went off somewhere (into the wild?) and mucked about with the dark magics and immortality spells and things. Then he returned, and that's the beginning of the eleven years. Not so much anything dramatic...just a return to the wizarding scene. Now I'm not so sure - he seems to have made the Horcruxes at various intervals. But he did disappear from B&B, and I guess his going to Dumbledore to be a teacher is shortly after his return. Also, according to Lexicon:

James and Lily first attend Hogwarts: approximately Y-10

Harry Potter is born: July 31, Y0

Harry's parents are killed and Voldemort is defeated: October 31, Y1

Lexicon also reckons that Dumbledore became the Headmaster around Y-10. And many of Voldie's big-shot supporters seem to be people who were at school with James & Lily & co. Inneresting, innit?

Will the people in Bk 7 go on about "three years"? But would they date the second rise officially from Vold's return to corporeal form or the mysterious disappearance of Bertha? ;D

[sibility.livejournal.com]

He covers his reasons for not wanting to talk to the Dursleys, Dumbledore, or Arthur Weasley, and eventually settles on writing to Sirius. There's no mention of the possibility of writing to Remus Lupin... I wonder if Harry is responding to Sirius's intense emotionality, as compared to Remus's withdrawn, self-protective demeanor.

Yes! Both Remus and Sirius are devoted to Harry, but I've always wondered whether Harry's subconsciously turning to Sirius in his letter, etc., because he sees that Sirius is less emotionally stable, more impulsive, more passionate. I don't think Harry's looking at it this analytically -- or looking at it at all, in fact, but it's almost as if he knows he has Remus' compassion and devotion and sympathy, but he has the feeling he might have to work to keep Sirius', especially since he's a blank slate to Harry, and a fascinatingly blank one at that.

(There is also the teacher/student dynamic, of course, which doesn't lend itself to that kind of familiarity. Or, of course, you could argue the exact opposite viewpoint ; D)

Hmmm.