Opinions on Ten Big Mysteries

[mellienel2 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26277

Thank you for this terrific summation. My two cents:

> 1.  Is Snape a vampire, half-vampire, or just a wizard?

I think it's a little too cheap and as far as we know non-plot-worthy 
to come out with "he's a vampire!" I really can't think of ways in 
which it would help the story. *Can* you be a half vampire? Snape 
seems to me someone who likes to hide in shadows -- how many death 
eaters or former death eaters are out lounging by the lake?


> 2.  Among Snape, Bagman, Karkarov and Fudge, who are Death Eaters, 
> and which DE is too cowardly to return and which DE has left 
forever?

No clue. Now that you say it, though, it is probably not as 
straightforward as the book makes it out to be.

> 3.  In PoA, was Lupin simply sleeping on the train, or did 
Dumbledore 
> ask him to take the train to protect Harry?

Hrm. It could have been a mode of free transportation for him. But it 
is conveneint that they found *that* compartment. And while scabbers 
was there, the sneakoscope was going off the whole time...perhaps he 
wasn't sleeping at all...

> 4.  How many students are at Hogwarts?

If I tried to answer this question I'd be burned alive.

> 5.  Does Snape really want the DADA job?

If his speech in SS/PS is any indication, definitely not. He seems to 
love potions. And if he is a former death eater he would surely 
dislike those who are armed to turn students against him.

> 6.  Does Trelawney have any predictive powers aside from the two 
> correct predictions Dumbledore acknowledges?

Old bat, occasional glimpse of terrible fates. (read: I refuse to 
believe that harry will die).

> 7.  In GoF, why is Wormtail performing magic with Voldemort's wand, 
> and does Wormtail still have his own wand?

I don't think Wormtail has a wand, because he grabbed lupin's to use 
it on Ron in PoA. They never said anything about disarming him, so it 
would seem he didn't have it then. If he didn't have it on him in a 
transformed state, he wouldn't have been able to retrieve it from the 
scene of the explosion as a rat.

> 8.  Are you convinced that you cannot apparate on the Hogwarts 
> grounds, or is this a red herring?

I think the absolute drilling of it into our heads will be important 
later on. See RJAnderson's Darkness and Light trilogy (on 
www.sugarquill.com and www.fanfiction.net) for a very plausible 
working-in of its importance.  If we don't see someone apparate onto 
hogwarts grounds by the end of the series, I'll be shocked.

> 9.  Why don't Fred, George or Harry see or notice Pettigrew on the 
> Marauder's Map?

Eh. Who knows. Never really looked at him before, maybe; ron was only 
at school for 2 years with them,and they might not have used the map 
all that much after they had 'learned it by heart'. But others have 
theorized better.

> 10.  In what order and by whom are James, Lily and Harry attacked?

By whom, who knows. Order, I thikn it was indeed James, Lily then 
Harry. Because we know Lily died to save Harry. So she had to go 
first. (I really don't think JKR would contradict this later in the 
series) And the whole point of "correcting" GoF was to make sure 
their order out of the wands was correct. So it would seem it is in 
that order.

laters,
m.