Some Questions = Theories Wanted

[Indigo]

No: HPFGUIDX 47476

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "evenflow200214" <daniel.brent at c...> wrote:
> 1) How would Ron have explained to the rest of the Weasley's about 
> the disappearence of Scabbers and aquiring Pig? We can see that 
they 
> do not know that Sirius is innocent in GoF and Ron supposedly has 
no 
> money... How would he explain Pig?

Not lying, but by being simplest.

Scabbers was ill and unwell all the way from their Egypt trip.  All 
Ron had to say was  "I finally lost him."  It's not a lie, as they 
did lose Pettigrew when he transformed.  It's kind of off-color to 
let a person misunderstand due to ommission of the full story, but 
the full explanation would cause more trouble than it's worth.

As for Pig?  He's a gift from Harry.  I'm sure Sirius wouldn't object 
to the ommission of  ['s godfather]  until his name is cleared. 
 
> 2)The Weasley's have a clock that tells each of them where each 
> member of the family is, home, work etc... Why then, during Harry
> and  Ron's adventures with the spiders, would the clock for Ron not 
> appear  on "mortal peril"? Or when Ginny was in the Chamber or 
> talking to Tom  wouldn't the Weasley's be straight over to 
> Hogwarts, banging down Dumbledore's door? Or when Ron was trapped 
> with Sirius? The clock  doesn't know that he's innocent... 
> And he's chained to a werewolf.  Why doesn't the clock tell the 
> Weasely's that they are in "mortal danger"?

Oh, bunch of answers come to mind on this one.

A) Fred and George possibly broke the 'mortal peril' setting for the 
clock because their pranks could have them in 'mortal peril' all the 
time, and the Weasleys are just used to it 'crying wolf' at this 
point, so they don't think anything of seeing a kid in 'mortal peril' 
if Fred and George are known to likewise be in the same location. And 
all the kids currently from the Burrow are at Hogwarts.

B) I will second the emotion of the person who said that the Weasleys 
knew that their kids were in Hogwarts, and Hogwarts is still, Chamber 
of Secrets notwithstanding, considered one of the safest places in 
the Wizarding world.  

C) Some standard stuff in the Wizarding World can be considered life-
threatening.  Quidditch  [both twins play, and Ron is a big fan] can 
put you in mortal peril several times during a game. This might be 
another reason the Weasleys don't necessarily automatically 
assume 'mortal peril' means _actual deadly danger_.  

D) Presumably during the adventure with the spiders, the clock 
didn't 'know' they were in mortal peril until Aragog said he was 
going to let his offspring eat the boys. And the car came along very 
quickly after that to rescue them. 

E) Ginny in the chamber?  Maybe the chamber was scry-proof so that 
Ginny's condition in the chamber could not be magically 'read' that 
she was in mortal peril.

F) Sirius didn't actually wish to hurt _Ron_. He only wished to hurt 
_Scabbers_.  That Ron got hurt was something Sirius, in his presently 
starved and deranged condition, hadn't considered rationally.  Remus 
was careful to tend magically to Ron's condition, too.

G) Remus, thanks to his potion, which he'd gone so far as to explain 
to the Trio, rendered him harmless as a wolf.  Ron didn't actually 
enter 'mortal peril' until they saw the full moon and it became 
recalled that Remus hadn't had his potion that day.  And then when 
the transformation happened, Sirius protected Ron and ran Remus off, 
so the clock /might/ have gone to 'mortal peril' briefly, and then 
moved away again; which would have only been noticeable if anyone was 
actively watching the Weasley Clock at that particular set of 
minutes.  

And as someone else said, unless Molly and Arthur had reason to look 
at the clock, they wouldn't have seen it.  At the time, they were 
unaware of Riddle's diary or that Ginny had it.  They also were a 
pureblood wizarding family, so they had no reason to be concerned 
their kids were going to get attacked.  And on top of that, Percy and 
the twins were supposed to be looking out for Ron and little Ginny.   
So there wasn't a whole lot of driving urge for them to look at the 
clock.

H) I'm guessing Molly and Arthur don't have a pocketwatch version of 
the Weasley Clock either, or they'd have known there was a problem 
when Ron and Harry took The Car. 

> 
> 3) Where is the proof that Crouch attacked the Longbottoms? Sorry 
to  reiterate it but it has not been proven that he is guilty...

> 4) How was Sirius allowed a flying motorbike and why did Dumbledore 
> not react at Privet Drive? As far as he knows, Sirius is 
responsible  yet he lets what Hagrid says about Sirius giving him the 
motorbike go  over his head and doesn't even stop Hagrid when he says 
he wants to   take the bike back to Sirius? Is this Dumbledore being 
lacklustre or  something else?

A)  Anti-muggle charms like on the World Cup. Anyone getting too near 
the bike would find themselves thinking of other things. Or, 
alternatively, the bike has invisibility charms on it like The Flying 
Ford Anglia.  

B) As for why Dumbledore didn't react? It's possible Sirius' 
motorbike was acquired legally. We don't know anything about what 
Sirius did before he was framed for the multi-muggle murder.  And 
when Hagrid had been given the bike, it was /before/ the multi-muggle 
murder, I believe.  Hagrid didn't seem too upset that the bike 
belonged to "that murderer"  at the time.  Hagrid didn't get upset 
about who he got the bike from until Prisoner of Azkaban.  Sirius 
said he wouldn't need the bike because he was going to go kill 
Pettigrew.  If Sirius had already been believed to have committed the 
multi-muggle murder, Hagrid would've been doubly upset - at the loss 
of Harry's parents, and the murderer trying to take Harry, then 
offering Hagrid his bike.  Hagrid said that he'd have killed Sirius 
on the spot had he known.  

So I'm presuming Dumbledore also wasn't aware that Sirius was about 
to get framed for the multi-muggle murder.

>5) How did Sirius know where to find Peter after the Potter's 
> deaths?  He seems to track him down a little too easily... Did 
> Peter plan that Sirius find him in that particular street? And was 
> it part of his and  Voldemort's original plan, to pretend to blow 
> himself up, thus  framing Sirius for three murders?

In Prisoner of Azkaban, it says that Sirius, due to the unhappy 
thought of the knowledge that he was not guilty helped him keep his 
mind and his magic. In addition, time spent as a dog also allowed him 
to keep his sanity.  So when Fudge came by to Azkaban,  Sirius asked 
for a copy of the Wizarding Times, and that's where he saw the 
Pettigrew rat as Scabbers on Ron's shoulder in the photo showing 
their sweepstakes win that sent them to Egypt. 

As for Peter? I think he did plan to frame Sirius. I don't know if 
Voldemort was part of the plan. I rather doubt he was, because 
Voldemort would consider that beneath him.  But Peter was jealous of 
the rest of the MWPP group, and Sirius even says that he'd never have 
amounted to anything as a wizard without Sirius, Remus and James 
having helped him along all the way through school.  If Peter had not 
framed /somebody/ [and Sirius -was- most convenient], the Ministry of 
Magic would have been after not only Voldemort, but him.  I think he 
just did it to save his own pusillanimous, craven, cowardly, rat tail.
> 
> 6) How do the Paintings exist? Were they people who chose to become 
> paintings? Are the in the control of the artist that drew them?

I think they're like the magical photographs.  The paints used to 
paint the portraits are potion-imbued, like the potion-imbued 
developing chemicals. 

> 
> 7) Will Harry and Cho get together, in your opinions?

IMO, no way.  Not after Cedric.

> 8) Why did Snape leave Voldemort and join him in the first place, 
in  your opinions?

I'm guessing Snape felt the wizarding world had nothing to offer him, 
but then Dumbledore did him some great kindness which changed his 
mind and his allegiance. What, I have no idea.

> 
> 9)Why did Tom become Voldemort? Was there a trigger do you think?

Mistreatment by his muggle family, and shame at being a muggle, it 
looks like. So far, anyway.  
 
> 10) Is Fudge merely corrupt, a good man at heart, or evil? And to 
> what degree?

I think he's stupid and corrupt, but not genuinely evil.  I think 
he's just so enamoured of his position and the power that it gets 
that he doesn't look too far into things.  He doesn't want a hard 
road. He wants smooth sailing all the time and goes into denial at 
the mention of anything that could make his road not smooth.
 
> I know I've made some points I spoke about earlier but just trying 
to  get some more discussion on it going...

I'm glad you did. The clock question was a great deal of fun to 
contemplate!

--Indigo