Confundus; Hermione's lying; Tarot

[porphyria_ash]

No: HPFGUIDX 40361

Alexander asked:

> I have re-read PoA, and now a question appeared: in the
> Shrieking Shack, Lupin tells the story of the Marauders to
> HRH and invisible Snape. He also mentions that three of
> Marauders were animagi. Snape hears the whole story.
> 
> Yet in the GoF, ministry seems to be unaware of the fact
> that Sirius is an animagus. Surely Snape would squeal on
> Sirius if he was given a chance? If he didn't, then why?

My interpretation of this, Magic Dishwashers aside, is that Snape 
honesty thought he was witnessing a Confundus-in-progress in the 
Shack and he figured the entire animagus account was a cock-and-bull 
story. He doesn't believe that Sirius is a large animal any more than 
he believes Peter is a rat. 

If Dumbledore later convinced him that this was all true then he 
would have also convinced him that Sirius was innocent, so once Snape 
believed everything he wouldn't have chosen to mention it to the 
Ministry. Snape is bad, but not that bad; I don't think he'd inform 
on an innocent man no matter how much he personally hated him. 
However, given Snape's evident surprise at Sirius' presence at the 
end of GoF, perhaps he was never made to believe the animagus account 
and didn't accept it until that moment. 

We haven't actually seen someone cast a Confundus charm. It's 
possible that it requires a *fake* story to take the place of the 
real one, like a smokescreen. When Crouch Jr. disguised as Moody 
brags about how the Goblet of Fire must have been confunded he 
says: "It would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm 
to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three schools 
compete in the tournament...I'm guessing they submitted Potter's name 
under a fourth school, to make sure he was the only one in his 
category." I take this to mean that the Goblet wasn't just coaxed 
into forgetting how many schools there were, but was told that the 
number of schools was actually four. Well, I guess you can interpret 
it either way, but I don't think it rules out that one way to do a 
Confundus charms is to tell a false story to replace the true one. If 
so, this would jive with what Snape belived he witnessed in the Shack.

-----

Dave Haber asked:

> In an unrelated topic, it's been bothering me for quite a
> while as to why Hermione lied to Professor McGonagall about
> why she was in the bathroom in the troll incident in PS/SS.
> I read a very old post here, in which someone said that she
> was saving Harry and Ron from getting in trouble, since it
> was their fault that she was in there crying in the first
> place.  

This bothers me too, I think the exact way she goes about lying to 
McGonagall is FLINTY. It would have made just as much sense if she 
told the truth and just said that she'd been hiding in there crying 
her eyes out. She wouldn't have had to mention why. My best guess is 
that she was simply trying to draw McGonagall's fire upon herself. In 
other words, McGonagall was about to get *really* angry and she was 
fixin' to punish someone, so by "admitting" that she was out to kill 
the troll herself, Hermione made herself sound as guilty and foolish 
as possible and made the boys look relatively heroic in comparison, 
thus distracting McGonagall from punishing them.

Of course the overall answer is that she is grateful for them for 
saving her life and she wants them to see how much she really admires 
them and wants to be their friend. By deliberately sacrificing 
herself she gets the point across that she values them more than she 
values her good reputation with the teachers. 

This would be the second case of a woman drawing fire upon herself to 
protect Harry. 

-----

Eric wrote:

> I can think of a lot of things that would go well in a 
> HP Tarot, though...let me see...Major Arcana...

> Harry Potter (natch!) as the Magician
> Hagrid as the Hermit
> Voldemort as Death
> Cedric and Cho (or Arthur and Molly Weasley, or Harry's 
> parents) as the Lovers
> James Potter as Strength
> MoM Cornelius Fudge as the Hierophant
> Professor McGonagall as the Empress
> Dumbledore as the Emperor
 
As to tarot, I know there is already at least one attempt online:
http://www.qaimlyn.com/padfootmk/tarot.htm

I think this deck does an excellent job with the symbols. The Empress 
is really a card symbolizing maternal plenty; I think Molly is a 
better choice than the stern McGonagall. The Lovers represents 
duality, not perfect accord; thus Hermione and Ron are perfect since 
they really do squabble all the time (shipping arguments aside). 
Snape, of course, would be the Death card, which represents 
transformation. Harry is the Fool, since he's the one who's making 
the monumental journey. And Lily is Strength (sniff!).

But yes, there would be lots of ways to interpret an HP Tarot.

~Porphyria