Flints, non-Flints, and similar items

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 28857

Edis wrote:

>On another point - something bugs me in PoA.  Its not a Flint but a
kind of name continuity problem.  In the first few Chapters the
Dementors are invariably referred to as the Azkaban Guards, the word
dementors not being used.

I am sure it's deliberate; we're being kept in the dark about who these 
guards are (I assumed they were human).  However, it does challenge 
credulity a bit to think that everyone would refer to them this way and then 
never again once we know what a Dementor is.  Here's a project for some 
L.O.O.N. to take up:  find a post-chapter-5 mention of "the Azkaban guards." 
  That would soften it.

Vicky wrote:

>In PoA, Snape throws his little fit about 3rd years not being
>able to tell a werewolf form a regular one, etc.  Why didn't  someone
>say, we learned some about them from Lockheart!?

They learned about them in Quirrell's class too:

"Next morning in Defence Against the Dark Arts, while copying down different 
ways of treating werewolf bites . . ." (PS/SS 13).  I think that saying this 
would be about as convincing to Snape as saying they'd learned about them 
from Lockhart.  Keep looking, though, Vicky!

Why Fawkes isn't petrified:  I think he does keep his eyes open but that a 
basilisk's stare is not fatal to a phoenix.  Phoenixes are pretty amazing 
creatures.  Is it so hard to believe that a bird that is almost immortal, 
that regularly immolates itself and is reborn, that is strong enough to tow 
four people with its tail, etc., can withstand the gaze of a basilisk?

Scot wrote (welcome, Scot!):

>since one cannot apparate/disapparate in hogwarts, he would
>have needed to leave the grounds first in order to apparate to privet 
>drive.
>So, it is quite conceivable that he went into Hogsmeade to apparate and
>passed many people celebrating the defeat of you-know-who.

>Any thoughts/problems with this theory?

I like it!

Cindy wrote:

>"His face wasn't sunken and waxy, but handsome, full of laughter.  Had he 
>already been working for Voldemort when this picture had been taken?  Was 
>he already planning the deaths of the two people next to him?  Did he 
>realize he was facing twelve years in Azkaban, twelve years that would make 
>him unrecognizable?"

>Now, the first two questions are fine and make sense.  But the third one is 
>a puzzle.  At the time of parents wedding, how could Black have possibly 
>"realized" he was facing time in Azkaban, even if he were already planning 
>something?

Sorry, Cindy, I give it a No Flint for the same reason Cassie does (and I 
wrote a long and confusing explanation before reading her succinct post and 
realizing I could scrap it!).

I like this line for another reason: the surprising empathy Harry feels for 
Black even as he is overcome with grief, hatred and the desire for 
vengeance.  In the midst of all these painful emotions is one reserved for 
Black himself, Harry recognizing that one element of the tragedy is that a 
happy young man was about to be transformed by his own doing into a 
miserable prisoner.

Amy Z
again shaking her head that anyone could think Harry is an empty character

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Asleep was the way Harry liked the Dursleys best.
                    --HP and the Goblet of Fire
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