Treatment of house-elves, Arabella Figg - revisited

[Linda C. McCabe]

No: HPFGUIDX 48255

nightfall_42, newbie to the list, HP enthusiast, and adamant cave-in
specialist with regards to girlfriends and the like. wrote:

There's one thing that strikes me as terribly relevant to the R/H ship that
I think was missed above.  Ron, being a member of a long line of wizards,
would probably take the common WW view of treatment of house-elves as
normal, whereas Hermione, born from Muggle parentage and therefore probably
more closely-aligned with average Muggle mentality, would see only slavery
and mistreatment.  If Ron was indeed interested in Hermione, mightn't he, as
a fairly intelligent young man, rightly assume that Hermione has a slanted
view on the house-elf situation and simply acquiesce rather than pick a
fight?  As horrible as this may sound, I am oftentimes forced to act
similarly when my girlfriend takes a strong position in any discussion, even
if I know as fact that she's wrong.  (I'm sure at least a couple of you out
there understand where I'm coming from...) At first, IIRC, Ron attempts to
explain to Hermione (in his usual, rather blunt way) that she's missed the
point on house-elves (by the way, please forgive the lack of quotes and
references... my girlfriend has absconded with my books... she's hooked),
but when she sticks to her ethical guns and becomes angry, he shuts up and
buys the button to end the disagreement.  Sounds like a typical male
reaction to an angry woman he cares about (i.e. wife, girlfriend).
Remember, it was a man (Shakespeare) who wrote "Hell hath no fury like a
woman scorned."  He knew what he was talking about!

Athena:

Yes, Nightfall, he did acquiesce at that point merely to shut her up, but
later he continued to snipe at her on this very issue.  Rather than
recognizing that she cares deeply about this political issue that he just
doesn't get, he deliberately antagonizes her.  I found at least two passages
regarding this:

p374 Scholastic pb. As Hermione was leading Harry and Ron down to the
kitchens.

"Hermione!" said Ron, cottoning on.  "You're trying to rope us into that
spew stuff again!"
"No, no, I'm not!" she said hastily.  "And it's not *spew*, Ron --"
"Changed the name, have you?" said Ron, frowning at her.  "What are we now,
then, the House-Elf Liberation Front?  I'm not barging into that kitchen and
trying to make them stop work, I'm not doing it --"


Then on p. 449 when the Trio is at the Three Broomsticks and Harry just
spoke with Bagman who was being chased by goblins -

"Worrying about poor 'ickle goblins, now, are you?" Ron asked Hermione.
"Thinking of starting up S.P.U.G. or something?  Society for the Protection
of Ugly Goblins?"

---Come 'on, that doesn't sound like he recognizes that this is something
terribly important to her.  To me her dedication to rid the Wizarding World
of an injustice is admirable and Ron doesn't recognize her fire and
dedication to this issue.  He belittles it and in extension is belittling
her.  Not a good basis for a relationship to succeed.


Onto the other subject of my heading:  Arabella Figg.  Docroger wrote back
on Tuesday:  Since we know the Dursley home is
protected by Old Magic, how else would Sirius know where to find Harry when
he was trying to see him on Privit Drive. I think he was staying with
Arabella.

Athena here:

Ask yourself this, if an escaped convict came to your doorstep who happened
to be an old friend what would you do?  And what if this exscaped convict
was in prison for betraying two of your other dearest friends which led to
their deaths?  Would you hex him?  I would!  Unless there was something
compelling you to sit and listen to his story in which he has no evidence to
prove his innocence.

Ah, so maybe somehow he got Arabella to believe him - then what?  Well,
she'd then help him get a disguise, that's what!  If he's a wanted man by
both the Wizarding World and the Muggle cops, well change his appearance
forthwith!  New clothes, haircut, change the color of his eyes, etc.  That's
not what happened is it?  Nope.  He found the neighborhood Harry was living
in, but couldn't find the Dursley's house.  That's because it is probably
unplottable for wizards, unless someone lifts the veil.  I think that
someone is Arabella and that she helped the Weasley boys find Privet Drive
because she knew Harry was being held prisoner.

I also agree with other posters regarding why Arabella didn't fix her own
leg.  She may not have the Touch, just as few wizards and witches have the
Sight.  And if she broke it in front of neighbors, they'd have insisted on
taking her to the hospital to have it set.  So even if she did get someone
from the Wizarding World to mend the bone quickly, she'd still have to
hobble around with crutches just for appearances sake.  Of course, JKR
needed a plotpoint to get Harry to the zoo to reveal his ability to speak
Parseltongue.


I personally will rebel and yell at the page if Jo Rowling makes Arabella a
witch who slurped down Polyjuice Potion for fourteen odd years or so.  I'm
sure that Dumbledore and Figg could come up with a better long term plan
than that.  I think a better and simpler solution was to use an aging
potion.  One was described in GoF when Fred and George made one to fool the
age line to enter their names in the TriWizard Tournament competition.  They
both took one drop each.  Heck if they could make that potion up quickly and
only need a drop - it doesn't sound that complicated.  She could simply use
that potion for years and make herself appear as a harmless little old lady
that lives alone with a bunch of cats (that aren't really cats.  Kneazles
prowling the neighborhood and reporting back to her.)

Once again the cabbage clue for PJP was also good for the Apothecary.  I
hope it simply signifies that there's some magical schtuff goin' on in her
house.

Athena

For more on my wacky theories on Arabella and her full security measures
including things such as owl repellents to explain why Harry never got
letters from the Magical World before his acceptance letter read my fanfic:

http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/L_C_McCabe/Sirius_Blacks_Secret_Love/