Portkeys - Jesse - Why V wanted...
Amy Z
aiz24 at hotmail.com
Sun Mar 11 11:09:34 UTC 2001
No: HPFGUIDX 14092
Courtney asked:
>Here is another problem about the Portkey. This group might have
>discussed this already but as I have just joined I wouldn't know.
>How is it that the Portkey worked when in the beginning of the book
>Arthur Weasley stated that Portkeys worked at predestined times?
>Moody couldn't possibly have known the exact time in which Harry and
>Cedric were to be touching the Cup.
I think Arthur says that so that we know that Portkeys don't stay
Portkeys indefinitely. Otherwise it would be very dangerous; what if
someone decided not to go to the Cup after reserving a Portkey, and
the boot or popsicle stick or whatnot sat there for months until a
litter-conscious Muggle picked it up? So a Portkey only works for a
particular period of time. In the case of the QWC, when they're
trying to coordinate thousands of arrivals, the window is very small.
In the case of the Cup (or toothbrush <g>), it can be set for a
couple of hours.
Susan, your message 14077 got cut off. Do write more and tell us what
Jesse said about Harry Powder!
I'm going to chime in a minority opinion on the
Why-Voldemort-Wanted-to-Kill-the-Potters/Didn't-Have-to-Kill-Lily
question, and suggest that perhaps he didn't have to kill James
either. The text in question (from PS/SS ch17) *implies* that he
viewed James and Lily differently, but it's not at all a sure thing.
"How touching..." it hissed. "I always value bravery...Yes, boy,
your parents were brave....I killed your father first, and he put up a
courageous fight...but your mother needn't have died...she was trying
to protect you....Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have
died in vain."
So, as far as we can tell from this and PoA, V showed up at the
Potters' house, and Lily grabbed Harry and tried to run (she never
even got out of the house). V encountered James first and killed him,
then turned on Harry. But that still leaves open the possibility that
he killed James only to get to Harry. He just doesn't say so
explicitly. In Lily's case, she was actually holding Harry in her
arms so the whole issue was much more pointed than with James, who was
just out in the living room or whatnot on his own.
I also don't think we can read into this scene any particular
reluctance on V's part to kill Lily. She didn't need to die in that
she wasn't his primary target, but that doesn't mean he was trying to
avoid killing her. So why didn't he just AK her without an argument
and go on to Harry? Perhaps just because she was a powerful witch and
he didn't want to tangle with her any more than necessary. (V, being
clueless about love, would not have known what most people would know
from the start: that you can't ask a woman to hand over her son to
save her own life and expect her to do it. You may as well just kill
her from the start and not argue with her...)
Amy Z
up way too early
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"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school
song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other
teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.
-HP and the Philosopher's Stone
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