Summary: CoS Chapters 5 an 6

[dfrankiswork at netscape.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 23702

Just picking up a few questions...

>   Question 2: I'd like you to express your opinions on the couple
>   Molly&Arthur. They seem to get on very well, but would you say
>   the have a relationship of equals?
>
At times Arthur is more like the eighth child in the family.
>
>   Question 3: Did anybody at this point think it had something to do
>   with Dobby or did you attribute the sealing of the gate to their
>   being late (it rhymes, I'm thunderstruck with my own talent!)?
>
not I.
>
>   Question 5: Do you think the weather in general and the
>   meteorological conditions on 1 September have a symbolical value
>   in the books? Is it important that, as the books are
>   getting "darker", the weather on the day of departure is getting
>   worse with every book?
>
Good catch!  I need to go back and look at the books.

>   Question 8: What Ron and Harry did, would certainly have been
>   worth expulsion. Much as we all like the two of them, do you think
>   it OK McGonagall lets them get away just with detention? And why
>   do you think she made this decision?
>
It's clear that Dumbledore does not want them expelled, so even if she has that happy power in theory, McGonagall would be unlikely to go against his wishes.  We know of no intermediate punishment worse than detention but less than expulsion.  For Harry, of course, the biggest punishment is realising Dumbledore is disappointed, just as later he is rebuked by Lupin.

>   Question 9: If Hermione had been with them at King's Cross, do you
>   think the two boys would have convinced her to fly to Hogwarts
>   with them by car? ( Later on in the book (Polyjuice Potion) we see
>   that Hermione is as capable of rule- breaking as the other two,
>   which she has already demonstrated in the Norbert-  episode in
>   PS/SS)
>
At that age her primary concern could still have been rule breaking.  By GOF, she would just be too sensible to let them get away with it.  She only breaks rules for a good reason.  I think Harry too by GOF might have had more second thoughts, even if Ron wouldn't.

>   Question 12: Do you think that Lockhart's way of presenting
>   himself as The- One- Who- Always- Knows- Best is a result of
>   stupidity combined with selfishness and conceit, or is it simply a
>   calculated strategy, trying how far people will let him go
>   (following Hitler's famous: The bigger the lie, the more people
>   will believe it)? Is he a Slytherin?
>
Very much a Slytherin.  Up there with Jeffrey Archer.  All three of JKR's great comic scoundrels, Lockhart, Trelawney, and Rita Skeeter, have in common their attention seeking behaviour which drives them.  All want to be looked up to as the fount of wisdom and seen as umportant people in the know.

>   Question 13: Which part of the plant is used for potion- making?
>   Do they chop up the leaves or the "roots" (eurgh!!)? And if it's
>   the leaves, what happens to the "roots"? Sorry, but this has been
>   tormenting me since I first read the book.
>
I don't believe the mandrakes are intelligent or in any sense human.  In this they resemble trolls, pixies, etc in having behaviour which mimics that of humans.  They're just magical plants.  For the revival of the petrified, surely the roots are used since these are the animated parts.   I believe that real, sorry, Muggle, mandrake roots are used.

David


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