“More importantly, why did the Remembrall go off like that?” Harry said. “Does it mean I’ve been Obliviated?”
“That puzzles me as well,” Professor McGonagall said slowly. “If it were that simple, I would think that the courts would use Remembralls, and they do not. I shall look into it, Mr. Potter.”
In-universe, this is little evidence for or against anything. But from a narrative point of view, if the answer to “What did the Remembrall flare up about?” had been “Do not use the Time-Turner for showing off”, this was the time to reveal it, rather than show Harry and McGonagall being confused. Certainly it wouldn’t be an answer worth waiting over forty chapters for.
I agree that you could read it like that, but I’d have thought that if it was something immediate like that, we’d have seen Harry realize and acknowledge it to himself. There doesn’t seem much point in leaving it a bit mysterious if that’s all it meant.
There’s an abrupt scene change, after which Harry is sitting in McGonagall’s office. Now, his conversation with McGonagall is evidence for Harry being dim about that question (which is not that unlikely) or it being foreshadowing, possibly for this (which is not that unlikely). (McGonagall would also have to not point out “hey, maybe it was that you forgot my rule”, which makes the first somewhat less likely.)
Um, I thought it was pretty clear that he forgot he wasn’t supposed to use his Time Turner for silly shit like that.
That was also my belief up until this passage:
In-universe, this is little evidence for or against anything. But from a narrative point of view, if the answer to “What did the Remembrall flare up about?” had been “Do not use the Time-Turner for showing off”, this was the time to reveal it, rather than show Harry and McGonagall being confused. Certainly it wouldn’t be an answer worth waiting over forty chapters for.
I agree that you could read it like that, but I’d have thought that if it was something immediate like that, we’d have seen Harry realize and acknowledge it to himself. There doesn’t seem much point in leaving it a bit mysterious if that’s all it meant.
There’s an abrupt scene change, after which Harry is sitting in McGonagall’s office. Now, his conversation with McGonagall is evidence for Harry being dim about that question (which is not that unlikely) or it being foreshadowing, possibly for this (which is not that unlikely). (McGonagall would also have to not point out “hey, maybe it was that you forgot my rule”, which makes the first somewhat less likely.)