Grimmauld Place

[Richard]

No: HPFGUIDX 76229

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "president0084" 
<president0084 at y...> wrote:
> If Sirius was on the run from the MOM so how did it come about that 
> he inherited the house? 
> 
> Should it not have gone to the Malfoys as the next of kin?

It would only go to the Malfoys if Mrs. Black were to disinherit her 
son.  We do not know that she did, though we certainly know that her 
portrait was still calling Sirius her son ... if a bit abusively.

> On a different topic as a Lutheran do you believe in Free Will.
> J.K. Rowling is from the UK were the majority are either Anglican 
or 
> Church or England its been a while since I've studied the 
> differences in religions but isn't predetermination a part of 
Martin 
> Luther's philosophy (theology)?

It is "predestination," not "predetermination," and it is from Calvin 
(sans Hobbes), not Luther.  The concept is easily misunderstood, as 
Calvin was writing in a time when relatively little was understood 
about much of modern physics, and there was little in the way of a 
developed language for the discussion of time as a theoretical 
abstraction.

The best way to deal with predestination as presented by Calvin (as 
opposed to assorted neo-Calvinist interpretations) is that Calvin was 
trying to say that God exists outside time, and so we (living within 
the confines of linear and unidirectional time) have a free will, but 
God (existing outside the confines of the linear, unidirectional 
time) knows the full courses of our lives.  Thus God knows from 
before creation where we will end up, even if it is by our own 
choices that we arrive there.

> In the sixth book we are now confronted with a situation 
> Free will V's Predetermination
> 
> But at the end of GOF Dumbledore said we all have choices to make? 
> But Harry has no Choice...

The Prophecy doesn't say who which will live, and Harry's choices 
will certainly play a role in deciding whether his "fate" is to live 
or to die.

> Is the Prophecy there to mislead us?  

It may well be misleading more than just us.  Remember, the prophecy 
COULD have been about Neville, but due to the events that resulted in 
Harrying having his nifty scar, even Dumbledore has concluded that 
Harry is "The One."  But, the prophecy doesn't say WHEN Voldemort's 
bane will be marked by him as his equal.  We also know that Voldemort 
still doesn't see Harry as his equal, but as a meddlesome little boy 
who keeps being terribly inconvenient to Voldemort's plans.  Thus, it 
is still THEORETICALLY possible that Neville will end up as "The 
One," however unlikely I personal believe this to be.