Praise for Luke's Deus Ex Machina -- Sirius as Father Figure -- Krum/Hermione

[Penny & Bryce]

No: HPFGUIDX 26991

Hi --

I have about a billion posts in my HP4GU inbox that I wanted to comment 
on, but you'll be happy to know that I'll confine remarks to just a 
handful of recent things.  :--)

DEUS EX MACHINA -- If Luke doesn't have L.O.O.N. membership based on 
anything else he's said in the last few months, I hereby nominate his 
post on Deus Ex Machina of this evening as grounds enough for him to be 
a L.O.O.N.!  :--)  Nice job, Luke.  I'm very impressed.  I especially 
liked the logical points that you made for the sub-cases of Fawkes ... 
that's the one that always bothered me on some level (yeah, more than 
the Flying Ford Anglia one you are bothered by).  You've convinced me 
that Fawkes, overall, is not a deus ex machina.  I do, however, still 
want to know *how* Fawkes got into the Chamber of Secrets without 
passing Ron.

SIRIUS & HARRY -- I agree with Marianne that JKR really needs to show 
more day-to-day, no immediacy of life-threating danger to either of them 
interaction between Sirius & Harry.  But, I do note that *if* they had 
this type of interaction, it would not be realistic for Harry *not* to 
ask alot of questions (or even a few questions) that JKR doesn't want 
Harry (or the readers) to know the answers to quite yet.  I think that 
this is why they will continue to interact sporadically & at a distance 
for at least another book (and, yes, I refuse to assume anything other 
than that Sirius will be with us all at the end of Book 7!).

KRUM/HERMIONE --

David said:

> She is not the type, IMO, either
> to toy with someone (despite Rita!) she does not care about, nor to
> settle for second best.  But Krum is definitely more than just a one-
> off date (note modish US expression) for the ball.

Hmmm ... I've never heard the expression one-off date.  I must be 
hopelessly old.  Oh well.  Anyway ... why do you believe that Krum is 
definitely more than just a date to the Yule Ball *as far as Hermione* 
is concerned.  We do know that *she* is more than just a Yule Ball date 
as far as Krum is concerned (2nd Task, confrontation of Harry regarding 
the fact that Hermione talks about him (Harry) all the time, and the 
invitation to Bulgaria).  But, I'd be curious to know why you believe 
that he means more to her than that.  My perception has always been that 
she liked the attention, but that she was uncomfortable with the extent 
of his feelings for her.  She is spending time with him post-Ball -- we 
do know that as there's no other explanation for why he would confront 
Harry with "Herm-own-ninny talks about you all the time."  But, she 
could just be hanging out with him as a pal for all we know.  Or, maybe 
he pesters her at the Library & she was trying to get rid of him by 
talking Harry up.

> 
> The explanation has to be that at the time of the ball no-one else is
> in the frame for her, and she happily accepts his invitation.

Well, if you mean, she figured no one else that she might prefer over 
Krum was going to ask her, then I agree.  If you're saying she had no 
feelings for anyone else & so happily accepted Krum's invite, I 
disagree.  We can't surmise that she definitely has no feelings for any 
other boy at that point.

 > 
> She spends time with Krum, as he famously mentions that she talks a
> lot about Harry (what this means about H, H and R would take too long
> to go into here - another post for another time), so I find it hard
> to believe she is pining for either of the other boys.  Yes, some
> girls might seek solace in a Krum-figure as a way of running away
> from their true feelings, but I think that would be out of character
> for Hermione.

Not if she's just being friendly with him.  We don't know the true 
nature of their interactions, so it's hard to say for sure.  Having been 
a teenage girl before, I can assure you also that it's completely 
possible to pine away horribly for someone on the inside & there not be 
any outward trace of this.  :--)

> Anyway, this is all rambly stuff not getting anywhere much except to
> say that the existence of her relationship with Krum over much of the
> school year implies that she has no serious intentions towards anyone
> else at this stage.

Again, I disagree.  *If* she has romantic feelings for either Harry or 
Ron (or both!), she's probably astute enough to realize that *that* was 
not the time to try & play her cards.  Why would she try to come clean 
about her feelings, knowing that neither of those boys had the maturity 
yet to handle any sort of romantic relationship (let alone one of a 
serious nature)?  She wouldn't want to jeopardize her friendship with 
either of them or within the Trio as a whole either.  So, my guess is 
she just enjoyed Krum's attentions somewhat but kept him at bay.  But, 
whether she had zero interest in any other boy at Hogwarts at that 
stage, simply by virtue of her quasi-romantic relationship with Viktor 
Krum, is impossible to say.  IMO.  :--)

Penny