Jumped the Shark #3 -- Sirius Black's Mirror in OOTP

A third reason why the "Harry Potter" series has "jumped the shark" is:

SIRIUS BLACK'S MIRROR IN OOTP

At the end of the Christmas holidays in "Order of the Phoenix" (OOTP),
Sirius Black gives Harry a small package. He does not tell Harry what
is in the package, except that it is, "A way of letting me know if
Snape's giving you a hard time."

Harry decides then and there that he will NOT open the package. He
doesn't want to be the one to draw the fugitive Sirius out of hiding,
where he might be re-captured by the Ministry of Magic and given the
Dementor's Kiss. Harry stuffs the unopened package in the bottom of his
trunk and forgets about it.

Later, of course, after Sirius has been sent "Beyond the Veil" by
Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry finds Sirius's package in his trunk again
and opens it. You know how it is when you open a package from your
now-dead godfather and it turns out to be a magic two-way mirror, and
you realize that if you had just opened the package when he gave it to
you, you could have used the mirror to call your godfather when you
thought he was in trouble, and then you wouldn't have gone rushing off
to save him and fallen into Lord Voldemort's trap, and then your
godfather wouldn't have been killed trying to save you?

I hate it when that happens!

With the two-way mirror, J.K. Rowling seems to be going wayyyyyy out of
her way to set up an obvious plot device that will pay off in a future
book. Assuming Sirius DID have the other mirror with him when he went
Beyond the Veil (and assuming, of course, that Harry can repair his own
broken mirror), then Sirius will probably use his two-way mirror to
send messages to Harry from the Great Beyond.. (If this happens, it
will obviously happen in Book Seven. The two-way mirror isn't even
mentioned in "Half-Blood Prince" (HBP)).

In setting up the two-way mirror as a potentiel "cell phone from
Heaven" for Sirius to use, J.K. Rowling once again makes the mistake of
having Harry and Sirius act AGAINST their characters in service of the
plot. To make the two-way mirror work as a plot device in the story, it
is important that Harry and Sirius should NOT do several things that
their characters would normally do.

For instance, it is essential to the story in OOTP that Harry should
NOT open Sirius's package containing the two-way mirror until AFTER it
is too late to use it. But by not opening the package, Harry is acting
against his character.

Harry Potter's nature is one of pure curiosity. He investigates
EVERYTHING! The Sorcerer's Stone! The Chamber of Secrets! He pokes his
nose into everyone's business! And sometimes it gets him in trouble, as
when he enters the Pensieve with Snape's worst memory in OOTP!

So why doesn't Harry open the package when Sirius gives it to him? Even
if he had already decided not to USE whatever device Sirius had given
him, it seems to me that he would STILL open the package just to see
what was inside?

The reason is obvious. Harry doesn't open the package because the plot
requires him to NOT open it until after Sirius's death.

It's also very convenient, plot-wise, that Sirius doesn't just tell
Harry what is in the package when he gives it to him. How hard would it
be for Sirius to tell Harry, "This is a two-way mirror. You can use it
to contact me any time you wish."

But no. Once again, Harry would have opened the package afterwards,
just to take a look at the mirror. And the plot requires that he does
NOT open it until after it is too late to use the mirror to contact
Sirius.

And here's the worst part! It's not enough that J.K. Rowling has Harry
and Sirius act against their characters. To keep Harry from finding the
two-way mirror until it is too late, J.K. Rowling has Sirius Black
develop a sudden and convenient case of amnesia!

In Chapter 29 of OOTP, after witnessing Snape's worst memory in the
Pensieve, Harry decides that he has to talk to Sirius about James
Potter's attack on Snape. While Fred and George Weasley create a
diversion, Harry sneaks into Dolores Umbridge's office and uses Floo
Powder to call Sirius at 12 Grimmald Place. During Harry's long
conversation with Sirius and Remus Lupin (which lasts over five pages
in the book), Sirius never once mentions the package he gave Harry at
Christmas.

WHY DOESN'T SIRIUS ASK HARRY ABOUT THE TWO-WAY MIRROR IN THIS SCENE?
The fact that he DOESN'T ask Harry about the mirror DEFIES ALL LOGIC!

You'd THINK that when he sees Harry's head sticking out of the
fireplace at 12 Grimmald Place, the first words out of Sirius's mouth
would be: "What the hell are you doing, Harry?! Why are you contacting
me with Floo Powder? Why didn't you just use the mirror I gave you?"

"Mirror? What mirror?"

"WHAT MIRROR? The two-way mirror! It was in the package I gave you at
Christmas! Bloody hell, Harry, you mean you never OPENED it?!"

But Sirius conveniently forgets that he gave Harry the mirror in this
scene. Once again, the only reason he seems to forget is because the
plot requires him to.

As a plot device, the two-way mirror sticks out like a sore thumb.
Again, I've come to expect better work from J.K. Rowling. Many of her
other plot devices are introduced with much more subtlety! For example,
the Room of Requirement is casually mentioned in "Goblet of Fire," but
we don't see it until OOTP. The magic cabinet in which the Slytherin
student Montague disappears is a joke in OOTP, but it is later used to
devastating effect by Draco Malfoy in HBP.

There is, of course, one other possibility that we should consider
here: That is, the two-way mirror is NOT a plot device that is going to
pay off in Book Seven. This assumes that Sirius did NOT have his own
mirror with him when he went Beyond the Veil, and therefore will NOT be
sending messages to Harry from the Great Beyond in Book Seven.

If this is the case, then J.K. Rowling is guilty of an even WORSE
offense! It means she has spent pages and pages in OOTP manipulating
her characters for nothing! If the two-way mirror is nothing more than
window dressing, it should never have been in the story in the first
place! What was it's purpose? To make the ending of the story more
depressing? To make Harry feel even worse about losing Sirius? If so,
the mirror becomes even MORE worthless to the story when you consider
Harry's miraculous psychological recovery in HBP.

In spite of the very poor way in which J.K. Rowling chose to introduce
this plot device, I really hope that Sirius's two-way mirror will have
some significance in Book Seven. If Sirius Black does not have some
further role to play in the last chapter of Harry's story, that would
mean that Sirius himself was little more than window dressing.

After all, Harry didn't learn too much from Sirius when he was alive.
If Sirius's only role in the series was to escape from Azkaban, unmask
Scabbers as Peter Pettigrew, and die two books later, then it might
have been better if J.K. Rowling had never bothered to give Harry a
godfather in the first place.

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"Jumped the Shark" -- A term used to describe a once-good TV series (or
movie or book series) that has lost its original quality edge. When the
quality of the series has declined and it is no longer as good as it
once was, we say that it has "jumped the shark." The term comes from
the U.S. TV show "Happy Days," in which the quality of the show began
to decline following the episode where the Fonz jumped over a shark on
water skis.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Jumped the Shark #3 -- Sirius Blacks Mirror in OOTP
    ... > SIRIUS BLACK'S MIRROR IN OOTP ... > Sirius Black gives Harry a small package. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: Odd Twins Conversation
    ... Sirius was not there and that was it. ... Harry reluctantly agrees. ... If the twins were present, an easier option would be available to ... Another interesting element here is the magic mirror. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: Odd Twins Conversation
    ... Sirius was not there and that was it. ... Harry reluctantly agrees. ... If the twins were present, an easier option would be available to ... Another interesting element here is the magic mirror. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: Odd Twins Conversation
    ... Sirius was not there and that was it. ... Harry reluctantly agrees. ... The twins could simply pop into the forbidden forest, ... completely about the mirror, and it was essentially to LV's plan that ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: Jumped the Shark #3 -- Sirius Blacks Mirror in OOTP
    ... Assuming Sirius DID have the other mirror with him when he went ... :> send messages to Harry from the Great Beyond.. ... But by not opening the package, ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)