LOTS of various questions/theories

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 46250


At 14:29 07/11/02 +0000, jastrangfeld wrote:

>Someone please tell me again how old Hagrid is?  How old is Mrs.
>Weasley?  Two things in GOF make me ask this question:

<snip quotes>

>So we know the Whomping Willow was put in place for Lupin.  Which
>would indicate that the Weasleys were not at Hogwarts when the
>Potters were.  But it also means that however old Hagrid is, Mrs.
>Weasley is older!

Not necessarily. As for Hagrid's age, he was in his third year at Hogwarts 
when he was expelled, and according to Riddle's diary, that was "fifty 
years ago". This would make Hagrid about 63/64.

It's unlikely that Hagrid took over as grounds keeper immediately on being 
expelled. He doubtless had some period of apprenticeship with Ogg, which 
could have lasted some time. We don't know how long after planting the 
Whomping Willow Ogg retired (or Hagrid took over from him for other 
reasons), but it wouldn't be entirely unlikely if Hagrid was his assistant 
at the time. There's nothing in canon to indicate that the Weasley parents 
didn't know Hagrid during their time at Hogwarts, nor is there anything to 
indicate that Hagrid wasn't involved in some way in the planting of the 
Whomping Willow.

In any event, we know that Hagrid was expelled 50 years before CoS. 
Dumbledore wasn't yet headmaster. We know (I think) that Dumbledore was 
already headmaster when the Weasley parents were there, and this was before 
the Willow was planted, during MWPP's time.


>Voldemort seems to make stupid mistakes simply because he does not
>think through what he wants to do because he's so power hungry!  His
>first mistake was when he allowed Mrs. Potter to die in the attempt
>to save Harry.

*Huge snip*

It sounds as if the arguments you're putting forward are what started MAGIC 
DISHWASHER going. As difficult as YahooMort is, I suggest you look back at 
the various M.D. discussions...

<snip>

>Now I have two thoughts here.  First being that the Triwizard Cup
>should not have been a portkey.

We don't necessarily know that. We know that the contestants didn't know. 
As has been said before, it would make sense for the Cup to transport the 
winner outside the maze, so that a) it would be obvious to the spectators 
that someone had solved the maze, and b) the winner didn't have to battle 
all the various obstacles again on the way out.

I see nothing wrong with the Tournament organisers not telling the 
contestants about the Cup's being a Portkey - the winner would find out for 
themselves soon enough. :-)

>The second being that as it was, he did not warn anyone not to touch the 
>Triwizard Cup.

I'm not sure what you mean. There was no reason to warn anyone as 
presumably the Cup was in safe keeping somewhere anyway (it could even have 
been on display during the tournament, but protected by some kind of 
anti-proximity charm); Crouch-Moody was given the job of transporting it to 
the maze and as he says he "turned" it into a Portkey, it's possible that 
even he didn't know that it was already programmed to transport the winner 
to the maze's entrance. The only other instances of Portkeys we'd seen to 
date (getting to and from the QWC) were time-sensitive. The outgoing one 
had to be touched at a very precise time, and the return one had (as I 
recall) a wider window, but was still time-sensitive. It's therefore 
plausible that the Portkey properties wouldn't kick in until after the 
beginning of the Third Task.

>Are portkeys strictly one time use?  Do they always have a return 
>destination on
>them?

Again, from those we saw in use at the QWC, they are one-way, and 
programmed for one destination. It has been speculated that as he didn't 
know the Cup was already a Portkey, Moody interposed a new destination (the 
cemetary), which made it malfunction and serve as Harry's escape mechanism.

>So if they knew they were so far away, and they knew the cup was a
>portkey, why didn't they just grab it and go back to the game?  They
>had plenty of time.  Instead they stood there watching Wormtail carry
>Voldemort over.

We don't know whether Cedric was conversant with Portkeys and their 
operation, but we know that Harry wasn't. As far as he knew, they are 
strictly one-way mechanisms, and it's only when the "shadows" told him 
otherwise that he knew he could do so.

<snip examples and quotes>

>1. Is Dumbledore related to Harry?

Unlikely. Petunia and the Dursleys are "all the family he has left".

>2. Dumbledore always seems to know what Harry is up to . . . does he
>have some sort of way of watching him no matter where he is?

There has been much speculation on this. The mysterious watch from the 
beginning of PS/SS has been put forward as a possible source of 
Dumbledore's information.

<snip>

>My next question has to do with Harry's right arm being the one
>stabbed by Wormtail to revive Voldemort.  This is the same right arm
>where the bones had to regrow, and was stabbed by the Basilisk.  At
>the same time, I was wondering, Harry had kicked the spider in the
>maze, and kicked him in the fangs and had poison all over him, and I
>would think that part of that poison was in his blood . . . surely
>they judges were able to see everything that was happening in the
>maze.  Do you think Dumbledore was thinking about this as well when
>he and Sirius were so concerned about Harry's arm being cut open?
>Maybe the gleam in his eye has something to do with knowing that the
>poisons and everything else had happened to this arm?  Or maybe it
>was because he knew that something he had done worked?

Hmmm... have you been reading alt.fan.harry-potter? :-) There was a recent 
discussion about the possibility that Harry might be immune to poisons, 
with inconclusive results. My own view is that I doubt this is intended on 
JKR's part.

As for the significance of Harry's right arm, I would add another mention 
of it which you seem to have missed: It is his "wand hand", as per 
Olivander's question when selling Harry his wand. This, I believe, is 
indeed significant. As you said, a  lot of stuff happens to Harry's right 
arm (even in TMTSNBN, at the end-of-year feast, his right wrist is 
bandaged). I suspect that something is going to happen to Harry's ability 
to use his wand (especially now that Voldemort knows about Priori 
Incantantem) which he will overcome, just as he's overcome all those injuries.

<snip last items about Snape, and Dumbeldore/Harry dying>

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who knows he shouldn't be (ahem) wasting time (ahem) 
posting here, but couldn't resist...