PoA 5, etc.

[pauraque_bk]

Happy Saturday, all, and happy Beltane to those who celebrate it. Finally, we get to the good stuff! This is a great chapter.

PoA 5: The Dementor

'I've got something to tell you,' Harry began[...] (57)

Harry's first action on hearing that Sirius is after him (well, besides going to bed) is to try to tell Ron and Hermione. So different from the Harry of OotP, who feels isolated and bitter, and lashes out at those who would support him.

This only had one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window. (59)

'I suppose he is asleep?' said Ron quietly[...]. 'I mean -- he hasn't died, has he?' (63)

Professor Lupin gave a snort.
'Who's that?' said Malfoy, taking an automatic step backwards as he spotted Lupin. (63)

'Quiet!' said a hoarse voice suddenly.
Professor Lupin appeared to have woken up at last. [...] [The flames] illuminated his tired grey face, but his eyes looked alert and wary. (65)

So, is Remus asleep, or not? There's the conveniently timed snort that scatters Draco et al, and he seems awfully quick to wake up for someone who was completely dead to the world just a moment ago.

I personally prefer awake!Remus. Remus is a lot craftier than I think most fans give him credit for. Who he is is paralleled by what he is: a wolf in sheep's clothing. Not that I think he's "evil" -- just very deliberate in his thoughts and actions, and more self-serving than he appears. Not the sweet, mild-mannered professor, but an extremely careful, shrewd, and observant man. Not asleep, but wide awake and listening closely to all that goes on.

The name 'Professor R.J. Lupin' was stamped across one corner [of the briefcase] in peeling letters. (60)

The letters are peeling -- the case isn't new. Was he a teacher elsewhere? Or perhaps a member of his family was, and had the same initials.

Harry, Ron and Hermione had already had two Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, both of whom had only lasted one year. (60)

I think this is inconsistent with what we hear of Quirrell in PS/SS:

'Is he always that nervous?'
'Oh yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag -- never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject -- now, where's me umbrella?' (PS UK paperback 55)

It certainly doesn't sound to me as though Harry's first year was Quirrell's first year of teaching.

'What's that noise?' said Ron suddenly.
A faint, tinny sort of whistle was coming from [the Sneakoscope]. (60)

Presumably, the Sneakoscope's been going off for some time, but they only noticed it when there was a lull in the conversation. The suggestion on first reading is that Lupin has set it off, subtly prodding us to suspect him, which we're expected to do in the final sequence.

Crabbe and Goyle seemed to exist to do Malfoy's bidding. (63)

I laughed here -- of course, they *do* exist for that reason.

The train was getting slower and slower. As the noise of the pistons fell away, the wind and rain sounded louder than ever against the windows. (64)
The train came to a stop with a jolt and distant thuds and bangs told them that luggage had fallen out of the racks. (64)
There was a squeaking sound, and Harry saw the dim black outline of Ron, wiping a patch clean on the window and peering out. (65)

Though, as usual, the prose is very straightforward, JKR nonetheless manages to generate real suspense in this scene, even though I know what's coming. Also as usual, she makes heavy use of sounds, above any other imagery, to evoke mood.

The compartment door suddenly opened and [Neville] fell painfully over Harry's legs. (65)
'You fainted, Potter? Is Longbottom telling the truth? You actually fainted?' (69)

There seems to be no reason for Neville to wander into Harry's compartment at that moment, except to... gossip with Draco about it later? Hm, that's odd. Also odd that Harry seems indifferent to Neville running his mouth off.

There was a soft, crackling noise and a shivering light filled the compartment. Professor Lupin appeared to be holding a handful of flames. (65)

More wandless, wordless magic, for those who are keeping track.

[...]at least a hundred stagecoaches awaited the remaining students[...] (68)

The Trio get a coach to themselves, so let's say 300 students, plus the first-years (crossing the lake at the moment). That's 50 per year, 12 or 13 per House per year. That's close to fannish estimates, but quite far from JKR's off-the-cuff comment in an interview that there are 1000 students at Hogwarts.

*

Quite aside from this, were James and Lily Aurors, or not? I felt certain they were, but then I couldn't find the reference.

*

On another note, does anybody know much about targetwords.com? This is an ad company that tags certain words in HTML markup as links to their client sites, apparently without the webmaster's or viewer's consent. keladryb is having trouble with this, and I don't know what to tell her. I had the same problem on my computer at work, and running Spybot took care of it, but that didn't work for Kel. What should she do?

*

At my job, we sell canvas by the foot. A customer wanted a 8x6 piece. The employee cut 6' off the 8' roll. The customer got upset because she wanted 8' off the 6' roll. "It needs to be eight feet *high*, not wide!" she exclaimed in alarm.

She had a very small child with her, perhaps six years old. He figured it out before she did.

Later in the day, I cut some canvas for a different customer.

"I want three and a half feet," she said. "No, wait, actually... give me three feet, six inches instead."

Comments

[mollymoon.livejournal.com]

Oh the pain of such asshattery.

[pauraque]

Your icon is way disturbing.

[theatresm.livejournal.com]

I don't remember seeing anything about the Potter's actual jobs when I was stumbling around, looking for BNW info; only that they were Order members. (One *must* wonder where they got the bank vault of money....)

[wolfie-thu.livejournal.com]

(One *must* wonder where they got the bank vault of money....)

I think it might be possible that the money was actually James' inheritance; in the "Quidditch Through the Ages" Comic Relief book, it's mentioned that the inventor of the Golden Snitch lived in Godric's Hollow. Such an invention could have made a lot of money, which would be passed down to his descendants. (It could also explain why James was playing with a Snitch in the pensieve memory, despite his being a Chaser.)

[pauraque]

I like that idea a lot. (Hm, I really should take a look at those Comic Relief books.)

[chresimos.livejournal.com]

What did James and Lily Potter do when they were alive?

Well, I can't go into too much detail, because you're going to find out in future books. But James inherited plenty of money, so he didn't need a well-paid profession. You'll find out more about both Harry's parents later.

from here :)

[eponis.livejournal.com]

I personally prefer awake!Remus. Remus is a lot craftier than I think most fans give him credit for. Who he is is paralleled by what he is: a wolf in sheep's clothing. Not that I think he's "evil" -- just very deliberate in his thoughts and actions, and more self-serving than he appears. Not the sweet, mild-mannered professor, but an extremely careful, shrewd, and observant man. Not asleep, but wide awake and listening closely to all that goes on.

I love this - so very true. I've often wondered about the sleeping question myself. On the one hand, it does seem IC to be awake, especially as the children have plenty of chances to "wake him up" with their noise. On the other hand, in other scenes he starts involuntarily when he hears them talking about James and Lily's death or Sirius's incarceration, and he doesn't seem to do so here. (There's also the question of whether, if he had his eyes open at all, he would've seen Peter when Ron took him out.)

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

I'm still trying to remember if Frank and Alice Longbottom were both Aurors.

I remember finding it odd that Draco hears the news from Neville. Perhaps Neville's simply so terrified, he's telling the tale aloud to any and all who will listen? I'm all for awake!Lupin myself, though I wonder why he seems to be the only professor who arrives by train. Arriving late? (i.e. other professors already at Hogwarts) Arriving on the train to watch for Harry?

I never thought of the briefcase's age being connected to a previous professorship, that's an intriguing thought.

[pauraque]

Arriving on the train to watch for Harry?

glitterdemon elaborated on this same idea further down the thread.

[pauraque]

Er, rather, on the idea that it's odd that he's the only professor arriving by train.

[maidenjedi]

Not that odd. He's the only professor who's also a Dark creature, so there are likely laws about how he can travel (Apparition is almost certainly out, and he couldn't do it on Hogwarts grounds anyway). Also, he's clearly poor, so other options (like Floo powder) might not be available either.

And I always thought it could have something to do with when he got the job. It's awfully convenient that Dumbledore happened to ask Remus Lupin to be a professor during the same summer that Sirius Black escaped. I think it's because Dumbledore has a motive for it.

[pauraque]

Some other posters seem to agree with you.

[bardsmaid.livejournal.com]

Ah, customer math skills... or lack thereof. I swear the reason grocery stores market products at '3 for $7' or '5 for $4' is because they know most buyers can't do the math and will just trust that it's a good deal.

Once, many years back, I went to buy some fabric at one of the old variety stores. I asked for ten yards and the girl helping me couldn't figure out the price because her little pricing list taped to the table only went up to 9 7/8 yards. I said, "Ten, you know? Just add a zero onto the end of the single yard price?" but she didn't get it. She just shrugged and wrote down what I said, hoping it was correct.

My homeschooled two have pretty good 'in your head' math skills. They did do quite a bit of early work with Math Blaster, which is a really cool math software program, but truth be told, the way they really sharpened their quick math skills was by playing endless sessions of D&D and having to constantly refigure their hit points.

[pauraque]

Ah, I remember Math Blaster. I'm not all that good at math myself (crappy public schools), but I know the *basics*. It's pretty shocking when adults don't even know that much.

[bardsmaid.livejournal.com]

Ah, I remember Math Blaster.

I guess you would. I keep forgetting that you're Steve's age. The thing about Math Blaster is that it was genuinely fun, and made doing the math fun.

It's pretty shocking when adults don't even know that much.

Um, yeah. My biggest frustration with schools (public and sometimes otherwise) is that there seems to be a distinct emphasis on form over substance--get the score or do the test in X number of minutes--rather than understanding the concepts well enough to figure out how to work out problems you'll encounter in RL. (To say nothing of the travesty of history classes that consist almost exclusively of names and dates, while learning real history--coming to grasp the broad sweep of change and the play of human nature over time--is endlessly fascinating.)

Paul's last year of public school was the third grade, and I used to help out in his classroom one afternoon a week. While waiting for class to start one day, I was talking to two girls at the blackboard about a recent eclipse. The next eclipse of the same type was supposed to be in 2013 and I asked the girls how old they would be then. Neither had a clue how to figure it out.

(Paul loves, btw, to tell people he's a third grade dropout... especially since at 18 he's got a good job that he started as an apprentice when he was 14.)

[bowdlerized.livejournal.com]

I tend to think Remus was awake as well. Not only that, but I wonder whether he engineered it so that Harry et alia were in that compartment with him. Err, what I mean is, I wonder whether he would've appeared awake when other students passed through to deter them from sitting there and then pretended to be sleeping when Harry came to make it more appealing for him to sit there.

Have your friend download Ad Aware and Spy Sweeper (both free). My mother's computer had that text-highlighting spyware, and one of those programs got rid of it.

[pauraque]

Yes... otherwise it does seem a bit unlikely that they'd randomly end up in that compartment.

And thanks for the advice!

Thank You!!!

[keladryb.livejournal.com]

I just ran Spy Sweeper, and everything is as it should be! Whoohoo! Ad Aware didn't do much for me, but Spy Sweeper *rocks* Thank you so much:)

Re: Thank You!!!

[bowdlerized.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. Score one against the forces of spyware. ;)

[glitterdemon.livejournal.com]

I think there's a tendency to read that scene with Lupin asleep on the train and want him to be awake. After all, it's what would happen in fic, innit? It's in-character, and us fannish types like seeing the more Slytherinesque tactics of our heros, don't we? ;)

However, I've read that scene carefully before, wondering the same thing, and my ultimate conclusion was that he really was asleep. Solely my interpretation, of course, but there you go. I think it does manage to say something about Lupin, but something else. That he's tired, he's a tired man, who probably has had to work hard to get by, and this job at Hogwarts is affording him the rest he needs. It's a job that, were he not a werewolf, he would be perfectly suited for, so he's able to relax into it a bit. (Of course, while replying to this I had some completely tangential thoughts that potentially invalidate my argument, or not. You can read them here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/glitterdemon/376282.html).) That he was awake and alert only moments after having been, presumably, asleep says more about the kind of man he is -- wary and frightened -- than about any manipulative tendencies on his part, and validates his reasons for needing the rest in the first place. Finally, I see the snort as a snort of disturbance at the raised volume of conversation in the car, considering that Malfoy is known to be loud when he's being obnoxious and insulting.

None of this is to say that I don't think Remus would have the potential to engage in a bit of spying pre-term, but for me the scene does read as him being asleep.

[pauraque]

I think there's a tendency to read that scene with Lupin asleep on the train and want him to be awake. After all, it's what would happen in fic, innit?

You raise a good point. As writers of speculative fiction, we want the truth to be the most interesting possibility, rather than the most obvious. Of course, the great thing about fic is that my Remus can be awake, your Remus can be asleep, and it still works.

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

Definitely in favour of awake Remus - following from previous chapter discussion and the likelihood of various people watching out for Harry. It's too much of a coincidence that Remus is a)on the train in the first place and b)in Harry's compartment.
and more wandless magic, it's always subtley mentioned but there nonetheless.
I'm certain there is reference to Lily and James being aurors; off ot have a look...

[pauraque]

Definitely in favour of awake Remus - following from previous chapter discussion and the likelihood of various people watching out for Harry.

Yes... I like this idea of a network of adults subtly making sure Harry is monitored -- so subtly that he doesn't even realize it.