Rift/sunlightultra/MerlinAgenda/DDAgenda/Grindelwald/VoldemortTMR/TT/Erised

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) <catlady@wicca.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52319

Dicentra wrote:

<< Nothing like risking losing someone through death to make you set 
aside all your differences, is there? How many TV movies rely on this 
principle? Parent argues with child, child gets into danger, parent 
nearly loses child, parent anguishes that the last words between them 
were harsh, parent gains new appreciation for child, and the old 
argument is forgotten. >>

And Molly and the twins acted it out right after the Quidditch World 
Cup. That suggests that JKR set up that scene to teach us to read 
Ron's reaction to the First Task the way you, Dicey, read it. 
Altho' *my* understanding of non-fictional parents is that, in that 
situation, they celebrate the survival of their child by spanking 
hell out of him/her as punishment for making the parents feel 
anguish.

Risti wrote:

<< From here, as I said earlier, Snape and Lupin play good cop, bad 
cop to show Harry the friendship between Lupin, Pettigrew, Sirius, 
and James, and just what can happen when you let a desire for revenge 
take over your life. Incidentally, that's one of the key themes in 
PoA, in fact-" >>

In your theory, why did Snape go along with Lupin's new belief that 
Black was innocent? Actually, I am less interested in theories than 
in hearing exegesis about a key theme of PoA is the consequences of 
lust for revenge.

Ffred wrote:

<< [Merlin] seems to be sufficiently "notable" for people to swear by 
him - it's the only example of an oath I can think of in the books >>

In PS/SS, Hagrid said "Gulpin' gargoyles". It's a horrible phrase, 
suitable for an old-fashioned non-realistic comic strip, and I'm glad 
it didn't occur again. 

However, it seems to me that Merlin being very much admired as a 
great (the greatest) wizard of Britain doesn't conflict with Merlin 
having been ethically pretty dark grey, because the wizarding folk 
(other than Dumbledore) don't seem to be all that down on evil. 
Ollivander, for example, saying that the Dark Lord did great things: 
"Terrible, yes, but great." 

Merlin getting Ygraine 'seduced' and Gorlois killed may not have been 
carrying out his own agenda -- he may have been carrying out Uther's 
agenda out of his loyalty to Uther. That would have been seen as 
'good' by all the people on Uther's side: loyalty is a virtue. He may 
have been carrying out his own agenda to make sure that Arthur was 
conceived and born to protect Britain from Saxon invaders and dark 
wizards, having learned from his divination that it had to be THOSE 
parents and THAT night... Some people would argue that Merlin was 
doing good by protecting civilian Muggles from invaders and dark 
wizards...

*waves Hello to hedge2staxy's post #52304*  *waves to Tyler Hewitt's 
post*

Bringing it back to Dumbledore, there are listies asserting that 
Dumbledore is doing some un-good things on behalf his 'agenda' of 
destroying Voldemort... My own theory on the infamous gleam of 
triumph, followed by looking old and tired, is Dumbledore rejoicing 
because Voldemort using Harry's blood means V can be killed by Harry, 
and the following weariness is Dumbledore remembering that Harry 
killing V involves Harry dying at the same time, due to the 
combination of the mystic link of the blood with the previous mystic 
link symbolised by the scar. When last I said so, some people 
protested that Dumbledore would not be training Harry to die, that 
would be like slaughtering a food animal, it would be evil to use a 
human child like that.   

Risti wrote:

<< Risti, who also believes that part of the reason Dumbledore is 
feared by Voldemort is because Dumbledore once saved the life of a 
boy named Tom Riddle from the evil Wizard Grindlewald... >>

Interesting. Could well be true. However, wouldn't that conflict with 
the popular theory that TMR apprenticed himself to Grindelwald? 

I used to believe the theory that Grindelwald was a European wizard 
who was allied with Hitler, but now I think it likely that he was a 
British wizard who operated only in Britain, because I see Voldemort 
as not having expanded his reign of terror out of Britain yet, and 
Voldemort is supposed to be a greater dark wizard than Grindelwald. In 
that case, probably Grindelwald had no connection with Hitler except 
using the attacks on Britain as a distraction while he did his own 
thing. He may have started doing bad things to unconsenting victims 
*decades* earlier...

Stickbook wrote:

<< How can the DE's be so focused on purity of blood when their own 
fearless leader is half-muggle himself? >>

Dumbledore said that few people know that Lord Voldemort used to be 
Tom Marvolo Riddle. Death Eaters who don't know that V used to be TMR 
wouldn't know that V was a Half-blood. Lucius Malfoy (who had the 
diary and may be the distant owner of The Riddle House) may know that 
V used to be TMR, but I have always thought that LM believes that he 
is secretly controlling V (power behind the throne, manipulating by 
flattery, etc) and will dispose of V when he ceases to be useful. I 
often wonder whether V knows that, is using LM, and has already 
prepared a terrible fate for LM when he turns traitor.

Maria Kirilenko wrote:

<< And this is where we are getting to my problem. The way the TT 
works suggests that its use is predestined, from which it's probably 
safe to draw another conclusion: *everything* is predestined. That 
seems to contradict everything we've seen in the books so far. Always 
in motion is the future... >>

Your question has a long pre-history as a theological question: how 
can God's fore-knowledge go along with people's free will? I can't 
answer it, but I can refer you to my *favorite* book on the subject: 
THE WHYS OF A PHILOSOPHICAL SCRIVENER by Martin Gardner. See Chapter 
6, "FREE WILL: Why I Am Not a Determinist or Haphazardist." Btw, to 
me, modern physics makes this a problem even for atheists ... in 
relatitivity, time is supposed to be a dimension and perceiving it as 
a flow is just an illusion...

Bobby btk6y wrote:

<< Now Harry obviously got his eyes from his mom -- the question is 
who are the other people that he sees in the Mirror with his green 
eyes? Is the mirror showing Muggles from Lily's side of the family? 
Interestingly, it says in the book that all of "the Potters" were 
waving at him and he was waving back- didn't mention "the Evans" >>

I had that same problem until another listie offered an explanation 
that works for me. Alas, I can't remember WHO it was, but she said 
she had understood that bit about "the Potters" to mean James and 
Lily Potter were waving at him, not to refer to all those other 
relatives. Before then, I agreed with Kathryn Wolber post#52290 that 
the Mirror was making those people up, but now I don't care whethere 
it was making them up or not.