Redemption - MOM Women - "psychic" link

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 14901

Doreen wrote:

>Harry Potter works for kids because all kids want to have adventures 
and get
>away with breaking the rules.

The truth comes out.  I hope we don't have any "Wacked-Out Christians 
Against Harry Potter" moles on this list . . . ;-)

I guess it's just because I, too, am one of those kids, but I don't 
equate all this rule-breaking with Malfoy's nastiness.  Most of 
Harry's misdeeds don't hurt anyone--and when they do, he is either 
unaware of what he's doing until it's too late (looking at Filch's 
mail--he shouldn't, but Harry doesn't know what Kwikspell is) or 
really sorry when he realizes how thoughtless he's been (nicking the 
car).  Bullying and threatening are way worse than rulebreaking, in my 
book.  I suppose it's possible that Draco does feel remorseful, and we 
just don't know it because we don't get his POV.  I'll go check out 
Surfeit of Curses and see if Heidi can convince me...

>Doreen, who is glad that she is not Harry Potter's mom when it comes 
time
>for teacher/parent meetings.

We're glad you're not Harry's mom, too, Doreen, since you'd have been 
murdered at age 21.  (Tom Lehrer:  "When Mozart was my age . . . he'd 
been dead 12 years."  Ba-DUM-bum!)

All your theories about Was Voldemort Really Trying to Kill Harry? and 
Harry Protection at the Dursleys are amazing.  You could start a 
career as a private eye.

Joywitch wrote:

>I am a terminal nitpicker so I have to point out that Bertha Jorkins 
>worked for the MOM, as did the witch whose name I forget who signed 
>the letter in COS to Harry about illegal use of magic at the Dursleys 
>(when Dobby dropped the pudding).

Terminal Nitpickers unite!  I stand corrected.  I should know better 
than to make a global statement without poring through every page 
first.  But it's more fun to stick my neck out and let someone else 
chime in whatever I've forgotten!

a. wrote:

>Ron rushes in and 
>says, paraphrasing, "I bought the stuff for him."
>1. How did Ron know Harry got caught?
>2. How did he know they were in Snape's office?
>3. How did he know Snape had made Harry empty his pockets?
>4. How did he know Harry had said Ron bought the stuff (and not 
>Hermione)?

This bit drives me crazy too (damn, a flaw in my favorite HP).  Maybe 
it was just irresistible to JKR to have him burst in like that--it 
reminded me of all the scenes in countless movies where person X is in 
a room talking about person Y and person Y walks in and answers 
something person X has just asked, even though person Y was 
supposedly out of earshot.  I mean, does everyone in the movies hang 
around the doorframe, waiting for an opportune moment to walk in?  
Doesn't anyone just walk right in like a normal person?

Maybe someone saw Snape marching Harry to his office, and told Ron, 
who doesn't need to be psychic to know that what Harry now needs is an 
excuse for having the stuff from Hogsmeade.  Ron does run back from 
Hogsmeade already knowing that Harry is going to be in trouble with 
someone because Draco saw his head; that someone is most likely to be 
Snape--the best person for Draco to rat to.  And he might have seen 
the stuff on the desk before blurting out his prepared excuse.

In any case, I find it kind of comical that Ron's excuse is so feeble 
and obviously false, yet Snape can't nail them and has to let them go.

Amy Z

--------------------------------------------------
 "Very haunted up here, isn't it?" said Ron, 
 with the air of one commenting on the weather.
                 -HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
--------------------------------------------------