CoS Chapter 12--The Polyjuice Potion

[pbnesbit at msn.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25091

Chapter 12--The Polyjuice Potion

McGonagall tells Harry to wait and leaves to fetch Dumbledore.  Harry 
looks around the office and sees some very interesting things.  
Besides portraits of past Headmasters and Headmistresses, there are 
some curious silver instruments whirring and emitting little puffs of 
smoke.  He also notices the Sorting Hat.  He tries it on again, and 
it tells him that he *would* have done well in Slytherin.  Harry 
tells it it's wrong and puts it back on the shelf.  He hears a 
gagging noise behind him and turns around.  It's a bird, looking 
sick.  As Harry watches, thinking all he needs on top of everything 
else is for the bird to die, it bursts into flames. 

Dumbledore enters looking solemn.  Harry explains that he's sorry 
about the bird, he couldn't do anything to save it.  Dumbledore 
explains that Fawkes is a phoenix and tells Harry a few of their 
attributes. As they watch, a chick emerges from the ashes. 

Hagrid barges in, insisting that Harry Didn't Do It.  Dumbledore says 
he knows but he still wants to talk to Harry anyway. 

Dumbledore asks Harry if there's anything he wants to tell him.  
Harry thinks about Malfoy shouting 'You'll be next, Mudbloods!', 
about the Polyjuice Potion, about the disembodied voice and that Ron 
had told him that hearing voices no one else could hear was Not a 
Good Thing, and also about what everyone is saying about him.  He 
answers that there's nothing he wants to tell him. 

The double attack turns what was just nervousness into real panic.  
Almost everyone decides to leave for Christmas, except the trio, 
Draco, and Crabbe and Goyle.  Harry's glad, because he's tired of 
people skirting around him and acting as though he was the heir. Fred 
and George, as usual, make a joke about it. Percy is not amused and 
neither is Ginny. 

Christmas comes and with it Christmas dinner.  Afterwards, Hermione 
hustles them out to prepare for the evening.  She tells them that 
she's put a Sleeping Draught into two chocolate cakes.  Harry and Ron 
are supposed to make sure Crabbe and Goyle find the cakes, eat them, 
and then they're supposed to snitch some hair and stash them where 
they won't interrupt the interogation of Draco Malfoy. The plan works 
beautifully until Hermione drinks her potion.  She tells them to go 
on (they're wasting time) and they finally do.  They encounter a few 
problems finding the way, then they don't know the password.  They're 
saved by Draco, who gets them into the Slytherin common room. 

Draco retrieves a newspaper clipping which is very unflattering to 
Arthur Weasley.  Ron and Harry force themselves to laugh.  Draco puts 
down the Weasleys, Harry, and Colin.  It's all Ron and Harry can do 
to keep from hitting him.  With a little probing, they discover that 
whoever opened the Chamber 50 years ago was caught and expelled.  
They also find out that the Malfoys have Dark Arts stuff hidden in a 
secret chamber in the manor.  Ron starts turning back into himself, 
as does Harry.  They make a quick getaway back to Moaning Myrtle's 
loo, where they discover...at long last...that the hair Hermione got 
from Milicent was from a cat.  Moaning Myrtle is *very* amused by 
this. 

Questions: 

1.  Did Snape know before the episode at the duelling club that Harry 
was a Parselmouth?

2.  Why was Snape looking at Harry with '...a shrewd and calculating 
look' after he told the snake to mind it's manners?

3.  Fred and George cover themselves with fur and boils and jump out 
at Ginny (who's upset that Colin's been Petrified).  Do you think 
they're callous? 

4.  Do you think Fawkes's plumage colour is significant?

5.  Why doesn't Harry tell Dumbledore what's bothering him? 

6.  Why was Harry in the Transfiguration corridor?  Is that the way 
to Gryffindor Tower?

7.  Who sets the passwords to the common rooms?  Do you think the 
choice of passwords is important? Significant?  


DADA will be posted later.