Personal experience and perception have a profound impact upon both the reader as well as the author of a story. The author’s personal experiences and perspective interact, conflict, and meld with the reader’s own experiences and perspective creating a dynamic perspective that changes from reader to reader. The closer the reader and the author’s perspectives and experiences the more “occupied” the reader will be with the author’s thoughts. However, this similarity of though is not simply one dimensional and unidirectional – and not knowing Rowling’s personal experience – it flows both ways and it can be inferred by the similarity of thought that author and reader have had similar experiences or great empathy with them.
Consequently, it is this likeness of thought and shared experience as well as the shifting expectations that lead me to conclude that Rowling see herself as Dumbledore. Always guessing, sometimes believing, and perhaps even knowing the outcome of events while never fully sharing the extent of what she knows or believes to be true. In the same manner that Dumbledore fails time and again to fully explain things as he know them, Rowling continually creates façades of truth, supporting arguments, and convincing evidence only to shatter the whole structure in one fell swoop. As Dumbledore gave Harry only what he needed to know in order to build his character and personal strength, Rowling gives the reader just enough evidence and a dash of foreshadowing to build a myriad of possibilities.
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