Harry's Fairy Godmother / Professor Krum? (WAS re:New Gryffindor Quidditch

[N Fry]

No: HPFGUIDX 41591

Two totally different posts that recently caught my attention....

stephanie howeth wrote:
>I believe Arabella is a part of what is protecting Harry as well,
>but I have a different point on why she treats him like she does.
>The Dursleys do not want Harry to be happy in any way, so they would
>never send him to a place that he wants to go for babysitting.  If he
>was excited about going to Mrs. Figg's, then the Dursleys would never
>allow him to continue to go there, since they want to keep him as
>downtrodden as possible.  I believe that Arabella acts like she does
>to ensure the Dursleys keep him coming over.  They have to believe
>that she is an old lady with similar attitudes to their own who just
>tollerates the boy, or they would never trust her.  I think when we
>see Arabella again, Harry will be surprised at how nicely she treats
>him, when she is not incognito.

I had been thinking this same thing, but hadn't had time to post. To go 
along with this, another thing that occurred to me is that she doesn't want 
to give Harry an excuse to leave the Dursleys' house. Has it been definitely 
stated if the old magic protections are on their property or if it is 
physically linked to the actual family members? Maybe a little bit of both? 
Anyway, I'm sure that there would be *some* protection at Mrs. Figg's, but 
it wouldn't be the same as the family protection. Considering how horrible 
Harry's life was, I'm sure that he would have totally latched on to anyone 
who showed him the tiniest bit of kindness. He might go out of his way to 
try to find a reason to visit her.

The Dursleys aren't the brightest people in the world, so I'm sure that it 
wouldn't have been too hard to come up with an excuse to have Harry visit 
Mrs. Figg more often if she had been nice to him. She could have just said 
that, being an older woman, she couldn't take care of her house repairs and 
yard work. I'm sure that the Dursleys wouldn't have any problem with renting 
the boy out for slave labor, as long as he didn't neglect his duties at 
home. But Arabella can't do this because she realizes that, no matter how 
much she wants to comfort him, he is still safest with his family. The boy 
wouldn't understand why she could be nice to him when she's babysitting him, 
but won't let him come visit any other time. Since it seems to be important 
that he is initially shielded from knowledge of the wizarding world, she 
wouldn't be able to explain her actions to him.

Frankly, if this *is* the case, I don't think I could have done it. It would 
just break my heart to see that poor little boy in such a horrible situation 
and know that, if I wanted to protect him from a far greater evil, I had to 
just sit back and let his family continue to treat him that way. I agree 
that it will be interesting to see how Arabella acts toward him if/when they 
meet again.


*****

In a totally unrelated post, Gretchen wrote:
>I wouldn't be surprised to see Krum at Hogwarts as a teacher, however.

This had never occurred to me, but I suppose it could happen. I don't have 
my books with me to make specific references, but don't the trio hear Draco 
telling Crabbe and Goyle about how his father considered sending him to 
Durmstrang? They overhear the conversation from another compartment on the 
Hogwarts Express. IIRC, Draco claims that Durmstrang openly teaches its 
students the Dark Arts. (Crosses her fingers and hopes that she *is* 
remembering this correctly...)

Does this mean that Krum could be the new DADA professor? There has been 
some speculation that it might be Fleur, but why not Krum? (Yes, I realize 
that she said that she was going to try to get a job there.) He already has 
a successful career as Bulgaria's reigning Quidditch god, but perhaps his 
year at Hogwarts and the non-Quidditch related attention that Hermione gave 
him was enough to show him that he is more than just a seeker. Perhaps it 
gave him that last little boost of courage that he need to pursue is true 
passion - a life long dream of devoting himself to learning and teaching. 
<veg> Can you imagine how awkward that might be for the trio to have Krum as 
a teacher?

But Hei Lun contradicted this when she asked:
>On a related note, is she [Arabella Figg - Nik's note for >clarification] 
>going to be the next DADA teacher?  It's going to be >someone female, 
>according to JKR, and Fleur Delacour aside, Mrs. Figg
>seemed to be the other obvious choice.

*Has* JKR stated that book 5 will have a female DADA? On all of the websites 
I've seen this mentioned, it's always labeled as rumor/speculation. Does 
anyone know if this has been confirmed? I'm just dashing this message off at 
work, so I don't have time to search Aberforth's website. Maybe I will 
tonight, if I have time...



~ Nik  (who, in honor of Darrin's recent anti-Redeemable!Draco posts, would 
like to humblely (sp?) submit a new name for his growing list of good band 
names ~ Mad-Eye Moody and the Bouncing Ferrets)

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