Fudge - Lockhart - Florences, Slugs - Why Harry Lived - Where Dumbledore Studied

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 19477

Pippin wrote:

>It seems to me from this conversation and one Harry has earlier with 
>Ron and Hermione about Dumbledore's being called away, that it was a 
>ruse to get Dumbledore *out of the way*.  Hmm, now I suspect Fudge 
>even more. 

Like others, I figured Quirrell sent it (Harry immediately suspects 
Snape), but you're right, this may be another red flag.  Something is 
rotten in the Ministry of Magic . . . ?  (Besides Avery and Macnair?)

I'd prefer it if Fudge turned out to be the willfully-blind kind of 
evil, not the actively-on-Voldemort's-side kind of evil, though.  The 
former is legion in the real world and causes way more damage, IMO--I 
liked that JKR was starting to explore it at the end of GF.

And along those lines, Susan makes the brilliant observation:

>Lockhart, IMO is interesting and important because he is completely,
>unmitigatedly and irredeemably evil (oh yes he is.  Just read that 
scene in
>the lair of the Basilisk.  He's a professional brainwasher and he is 
quite
>happy to leave an 11 year old kid to a horrible death if it will sell 
him
>more books) and  *still *nothing to do with Voldemort.  Which is 
where
>Rowling scores massively over her predecessors, tolkein and all.

As for the last bit, though, I agree with Robert.  Tolkien has plenty 
of characters who do evil without the direct influence of Sauron:  
Boromir, Saruman, Grima Wormtongue--they are all under the sway of 
their own ambitions and failings.  It isn't just the pull of the Ring 
that makes them go wrong.

Two little things I've noticed recently:

There are =2= Florences (Florence, are you listening?):  she of the 
greenhouse assignation and Firenze, the centaur (Firenze being the 
Italian name for the city of Florence).  I doubt this means anything 
at all, she added hastily, not wanting to be locked in the 200% 
obsessed corner of the loony bin.

In CoS 6, when Draco is joyfully picking on Harry about the "signed 
photos," Ron says, "Eat slugs, Malfoy."  I've noticed this before 
enough to realize that it's the hex he has in mind in the next chapter 
when his wand backfires.  What I haven't noticed until now is that it 
reverses in two ways:  it curses Ron instead of Draco, =and= it makes 
him vomit slugs instead of eat them.  Nice touch, Jo.  (As Hagrid 
says, "Better out than in," so I suppose it's just as well.)

Jami wrote:

> was anyone else as disappointed as I to learn in GoF that
> the only reason baby Harry had defeated Voldemort the first
> time was due to Lily's sacrificial death? I'd always thought
> that it was Harry's kinetic wizarding powers that resulted in
> Voldy's defeat.

Well, as much as I may regret it, we still don't know for sure.  GF 
tells us Voldemort's opinion, but he might be wrong.  (If you haven't 
read GF, stop reading and skip to the next post.  I mean it.  Stop 
now!)  Because of the wand matchup, we never learn whether V can kill 
him with an AK; maybe it would've worked (my guess is yes), maybe not. 
 We know he can touch him now, but that doesn't tell us everything we 
need to know.

Amanda wrote:

>He wanted to know if there was any firm canonical evidence that
>Dumbledore himself attended Hogwarts. And I don't know that there is.
>Hmm.

Hermione's line is the only one that indicates it, IIRC.  IMHO, that's 
firm, but it's a judgment call.

BTW, all you folks who have piped up recently about your fave and 
least fave books, go to Polls and put it in writing!  (Unless you're 
going to put CoS last.  ::sighs::  Am I the =only= person who 
doesn't?)

Catlady wrote <fantasy scene of Fleur at the Burrow>

Why wait for JKR?  Write the thing yourself and post it to ff pronto!

Caius, thanks as always for the laughs.  What a duo:  Johnny Cash and 
Severus Snape, the Men in Black...  And 
"Superbureaucraticmagicaladministration" had me giggling helplessly.  
That one has to go in the filk Hall of Fame.

Amy Z
not normally a giggler

-----------------------------------------------------------
 "You've got just as much right as wizards to be unhappy!"
                             -HP and the Goblet of Fire
-----------------------------------------------------------