Chapter Discussions: Chapter 3, the Advance Guard

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 76073

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ali" <Ali at z...> wrote:
 
> (Q1) Harry is a teenage boy who at this stage in the story is 
> lacking any guidance, but does he have a hygiene problem? He goes 
to 
> sleep in the same dirty, ill-fitting clothes that he is wearing 
when 
> we first see him in Chapter 1. He doesn't comb his hair when 
> confined to his room, but is this a symptom of a wider lack of 
> looking after himself? His clothes might only have been dirty 
> because he had been hiding in the flower bed, but is he actually 
> allowed to wash his clothes? Has Petunia washed her hands of all 
> responsibility towards Harry's physical appearance perhaps 
> encouraging his delinquent appearance as it so obviously sets him 
> apart from her and what she stands for, allowing her to despise him 
> even more?

> (Q 2) Is the behaviour exhibited by Harry – waxing between total 
> inactivity and inability to stay still, a sign of depression or 
Post 
> Traumatic Stress Disorder? We see him wanting to externalise some 
of 
> the internal pain and frustration he is feeling by having Hedwig 
> peck his friends this does seem to be an unwelcome development in 
> Harry's character from the boy we left in GoF.


General comments on Qs1 and 2:

I'm not a mental health expert, but I'd suspect that Harry's overall 
unconcern about his appearance is indicative of some deeper emotional 
problems. His feelings of anger, frustration, self-pity, isolation, 
plus guilt over Cedric's death, plus having to live with a family who 
has never provided him with emotional support I think is enough to 
make any 15-year-old show some outward manifestations of problems.  
Is this a clinical sign of depression? I'm not qualified to say. Is 
this a conscious or unconscious anti-Dursley activity?  Petunia is so 
obsessively neat and clean. Harry's room is a mess. Petunia and 
Vernon want to present a picture-perfect image to the neighbors.  
Harry walks around the neighborhood in looking like he's pulled his 
clothes out of a dustbin.

I'm willing to cut Harry some slack for his instructions to Hedwig.  
Perhaps setting your pet on your friends is not the nicest thing to 
do, but at this point, in addition to the above points, Harry has 
also been attacked, has been threatened with expulsion and now has a 
date with the Ministry hanging over his head.  And, after that brief 
flurry of owls, Harry gets no other communication.  Of course he's 
frustrated. I think he is desperate to get across that he really 
wants and needs some answers.  Having Hedwig act up does not qualify 
as a particluarly great sin in my book.


> (Q 3) Is Petunia's order that Harry is not to leave the house a 
> further acknowledgement that she knows that Harry is now only safe 
> *in* the house?  But her insistence that Harry be confined to his 
> room seems to be for her benefit as she cannot stand his presence.

Yes to the question. And, yes, I think she can't stand his presence.
 
 
> (Q 6) Are the likes of Elphias Doge and Emmeline Vance the 
> equivalent of the "Red shirts" in Star Trek, crew members 
introduced 
> to be killed off? Sturgess Podmore gives us an indication that this 
> might be the case, as to date; his function has been to be 
Imperioed 
> and imprisoned.

And Broderick Bode, who was mentioned in GoF...

 
> (Q 7) Will Tonk's special talent come into play later or is JKR 
> really overplaying the changing appearance card?

I can't imagine it not playing a greater part later.  Simply 
introducing Tonks so that she can show how she takes other forms 
while escorting people about seems a waste of space.

> (Q 8) At this stage in OoP, Harry hasn't been banned from 
Quidditch, 
> so why has he never considered Quidditch as a professional career? 
> He loves it and appears to be exceptionally gifted at it, yet here 
> seems content to continue it as a hobby. 

I wonder if Harry has already relegated Quidditch into a category 
of "Fun and Games" that he can't see pursuing as a career, even 
though he doesn't come out and say so.  Had the Quidditch World Cup 
experience been simply an enjoyable, exciting event in GoF, perhaps 
it would have loomed larger in Harry's thoughts as a career. But, the 
fun of that event was immediately intruded upon by Death Eaters.  
Harry's life started taking a darker turn in GoF, and I think he had 
already started to understand that a battle with Voldemort would 
become inevitable. Playing professional Quidditch may already seem to 
be a completely useless way to fight DEs. 

> 
> (Q 9) The size of Harry's guard is partly due to intrigue about 
> Harry, but seems absurd when compared to his trip to the MOM when 
> Harry has only Mr Weasley to accompany him. Is Harry really unsafe 
> or is it just a combination of Moody's paranoia and other peoples 
> general nosiness?

There did seem to be a sizable contingent of the curious in the group 
that picked up Harry, plus others that we didn't see who set off the 
signals in the night sky.  If this is simply Moody's paranoia, at 
what point does his influence become a hindrance?  If a platoon of 
people was needed to escort Harry to Grimmauld Place, and there were 
apparently a bunch of witches and wizards hanging around able to do 
this, then why were only five people available to go to Harry's 
rescue at the Department of Mysteries, when he was in imminent danger 
from a dozen wand-wielding DEs, especially as Dumbledore says later 
in the book that OoP members have safe ways of communicating with 
each other? The removal of Harry from the Dursleys was a planned 
operation and the activity at the MoM was a response to an emergency, 
but, still, the disparity in the number of people available to play a 
part bothers me.

 
> (Q 10) Does the use of the Put Outer here show that it is used 
> solely as its name implied or is it an indication that Harry is 
> again provided wit Multi-layered protection without him realising?

I'm not really sure why this was considered necessary.  To keep Harry 
hidden? He was already under the Disillusionment Charm.  To keep 
Muggles from noticing everyone disappearing into thin air as they 
entered 12 Grimmauld Place? Wouldn't Muggles find it odd that a bunch 
of people just flew in out of the sky on brooms?  Harry was the only 
person who was Disillusioned, as it is clearly mentioned that during 
the flight he sees his trunk hanging from Tonks' broom and he notices 
Kingsley's bald head and twinkling earring during the flight.  So, 
using the Putter Outer as a concealment tool seems to have been left 
just a tad too late.

Is it part of an as-yet-unexplained protection?  I don't think so. 
Unless it has something to do with Harry entering houses in which he 
will spend some time that are either non-Magical, like Privet Dr., or 
magical but with possible bad influences, like 12 Grimmauld Place. 
(Yes, it's the HQ of the Order, but it reeks with all that old pure-
blood dark magic stuff.)

> (Q 11) Why when the MoM appear to monitor Harry's presence in 
Privet 
> Drive, do they not monitor – or question – his sudden disappearance 
> from there?

Don't really know, unless Dumbledore is able to exert a bit of 
influence and can assure the MoM of Harry's safety.  Although that 
seems somewhat unlikely as Dumbledore currently was having his own 
issues with the MoM.  Plus, would Harry be untrackable or unfindable 
when he was in 12 Grimmauld Place?  How would the MoM be able to 
monitor him, and wouldn't someone there be concerned if they couldn't 
track him? Or has the MoM been told that Harry is with the Weasleys, 
and that's enough of an explanation?

> (Q 12)  Much of this chapter could be viewed as superfluous 
> narrative. Is this a chapter which a more rigorous editor would 
have 
> stripped down to a few lines? Has JKR's success actually meant that 
> her editors are now reluctant to offer advice and guidance which 
> might have lead to the OoP being a shorter and punchy book?

I think that some of this chapter could have been trimmed.  I 
wouldn't have wanted it left out entirely, as the jump from Privet 
Dr. to Grimmauld Place would have been too abrupt.  Whether or not 
this means that JKR's editors are now being paid to not edit, I don't 
know.  Maybe if the next book reaches 900 pages...

Marianne