|
Knowing that Lupin is a werewolf, and finding the effect the Boggart has on Harry, leaves us with something of a contradiction. Clearly the Boggart, in Dementor form, is having the same magical effect on Harry that a real Dementor would, leaving Harry despairing and bringing horrible, buried memories to the front of Harry's mind. And yet, when the Boggart takes the form of the full moon, Lupin's greatest fear, it does not affect him. One can only surmise that this is due to something similar to the "placebo effect": if you believe something will have an effect on you, it quite often does. To this end, the Boggart-as-Dementor is believable, as being something that could be present in the classroom, and so has an effect on Harry because he believes it will; the Boggart-as-full-moon is not believable, as a full moon cannot exist inside a classroom, and being unbelievable, has no effect on Lupin.
Neville losingis theactually listblameless offor passwordslosing willthe turn out to not be his fault.password list—Crookshanks hadstole stolenit thatat listSirius at theBlack's request of Sirius. Black, who will use it two nights hence to enter Gryffindor tower. That event will causecauses some confusion, however, as Black will apparently be found attackingattacks Ron, rather than Harry, who he ishis supposed totarget; beit tryingis toactually kill;the itdeparted willScabbers, however,who turnslept outin toRon's be the departed Scabbersbed, that Black is looking forhunting. It is worth noting, however, that the selection ofhaving Neville to lose this list wasis verya well-made choice by the author; Neville has always been characterized from the beginning of the series as having memory problems, particularly with passwords, so his losing the list thatperfectly he has made is of a piece withfits his character.
We learn that Lupin had gone toattended school with [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/James Potter|Harry's father]] and Sirius Black., We know also by now thatand [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Peter Pettigrew|"little Peter Pettigrew"]] was one of their friends,. and weWe may also recall that [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Severus Snape|Snape]] had beenwas in school at the same time — [[Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Albus Dumbledore|Professor Dumbledore]] had mentioned that James saved Snape's life. While it is stillyet not possible for usimpossible to recognize James, Sirius, Pettigrew, and Lupin together as a group, we should be aware at this point that they knew each other. It is a little curious that Harry is more interested at the moment in talking with Lupin about Sirius rather than about his father, but it is true that Sirius is someone who seems to be more immediate for him.
Repeatedly,We throughsee thisa book,recurring wepattern seethroughout athe patternstory: recur:whenever someone wonders how Hermione can be taking so many classes, and promptly there is an interruption ofpromptly some sortinterruption that preventsends usfurther from wondering furtherspeculation. It is a tribute to the author's skill that the interruptions, dorather notthan seembeing contrived, but areseem simplylike normal occurrences, or as normal as they can be in thisthe situation. ThisScabbers' chapter"death" showsis onesuch ofan theseoccurrence, interruptions: the apparent death of Scabbers interruptsinterrupting Harry's musing onabout thisthe topic. While thethis event itself is extraordinary, it is not entirely unexpected. Like Ron and, to a lesser extent, Harry, we can see that Crookshanks has been targeting Scabbers since hehis was introducedintroduction to the story. Thus Scabbers' apparent demise, seemingly at Crookshanks' claws, while somethingsomewhat of a surprisesurprising, is still a natural progression, andmaking the interruption seemsseem quite natural.
|
