[HPforGrownups] 3rd Task (was: Ludo Bagman Is Ever So Evil)

[Alexander]

No: HPFGUIDX 34215

  Greetings!

> Cindy (sphynx) wrote to us:

c> Yes, we are never told how high the viewing stands are.  Aside from
c> the fact that the walls were quite high (20 feet), however, there are 
c> other reasons to believe the spectators could not see the events in 
c> the maze.  They are:

  Do you mean that the spectators were assumed to sit on
their seats for damn whole hour and observe the outer walls
of the labirinth?
  There _must_ be some way for spectators to see what's
going on, or else Triwizard Tournament would become the
greatest failure in entertainment industry. :)

  IMHO there was no way to see the events _directly_. But
given the amount of spells useful for scrying (Hermione
spent _days_ browsing through them!) I would bet something
was conveyed to the spectators. Position? General events?
Haven't the slightest idea.

c> 1. If people can see inside, why does no one observe the
c> activities of Crouch/Moody? Fleur crumples to the ground
c> early on, skrewts and spiders are roaming all around, and
c> no one cares? How is Moody able to curse obstacles out of
c> Harry's way unnoticed?

  You have answered your own question here. :) There's a lot
of cool events inside, why bother observing Moody? ;)
  Of course, if we assume that there was some way to observe
events directly.

c> 2. If people can see inside, why is there any need for a
c> competitor to shoot up red sparks?

c> 3. I don't do math or geometry or anything like that, but
c> it seems to me that the stands would have to be terribly
c> high for spectators to see over the 20 foot walls and all
c> the way down to the ground level at the center of the
c> maze. Can the math specialists work it out? Drieux?
c> David? Barb?

  I'm myself a math specialist. ;)
  Quidditch field is 180 feet wide. I assume that the stands
are ~50 feet high. Given wall height of 20 feet and assuming
that the stands are 45 degrees to the ground, we get that
the central room must be 60 feet in radius for the Cup to be
observable from the highest seats.
  Thus, I find Grey Wolf's idea highly unlikely (whole
labirinth is 180 feet wide, and central room is 120 feet in
diameter?).

c> I think the flag was proper because it is an awfully big
c> stretch to say canon supports the idea that Bagman has
c> some keen, unmentioned way of seeing into the center of
c> the maze.

  Personally, I didn't even _think_ that it was possible to
_look_ into the center - rather that the Cup itself, being a
magical object, may transmit data outside the labirinth.
After all, as soon as the Cup is reached, the labirinth
itself disappears - thus there IS some magical link between
the Cup and it's surroundings.

  But all this was invented only because Ludo was not
mentioned in the scene after Harry returned. But in fact
there's no need to do it at all. All scene is described from
Harry's PoV which was pretty "limited" (so to say) at the
moment. The fact that Ludo wasn't mentioned doesn't prove
anything at all, just like all other arguments that were
presented before.

  And about canon... there's as much (and as little) canon
to assume that Ludo was a DE. In fact, _nothing_ in the
canon hints to Ludo being a DE himself. Cindy indeed proved
that Ludo MAY be a Death Eater, but I can easily build
similar "proof" for almost any character in the books (yeah,
including Harry, too :)
  IMHO this is a subject not worth discussing - no matter
what we won't know the truth until subsequent books come out
of print.

c> Cindy (who might have to refer this to the league for a
c> fine and possible suspension <bg>)

  Oh, I'm sooooo scared! :)

  The most interesting thing is that I'm not the least bit
interested if Ludo is a DE or not - but he was assaulted
with such fury I felt obligation to defend the poor sap. :)

  IMHO it's impossible to stop people from trying accusing
everyone around. Perhaps this topic will be over only when
some another person will be accused. McGonagall, perhaps? ;)

Sincerely yours,
Alexander Lomski,
(Gryffindor/Slytherin crossbreed),
who is reasonably sure real Moody is ALSO a DE... ;-P

    - Human feelings are burning away in him now. Maybe Len
      will win and remain the same. Maybe he will die if he
      lacks  strength  but has willpower enough. Or... will
      become  one of Dark. No, not true. He will still have
      human  heart and human sight. We'll have to teach him
      friendship and goodness. This succeeds... sometimes.
        Sun Kitten.
        (Sergey Lukyanenko, "The Boy and the Darkness").