Dementors, Squib!Umbridge, Portrait, and Mixed Parentage

[Jennifer Boggess Ramon]

No: HPFGUIDX 68127

At 10:04 AM +0000 7/4/03, Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) wrote:
>
>I think OoP demonstrated that Dementors are Beings rather than Beasts
>-- in the very first chapter, "Dudley Demented", when a Dementor
>approaches Harry so closely that he can smell its foul breath,
>"a voice spoke inside his head: 'Bow to death, Harry ... it might
>even be painless ...  I would not know ... I have never died ...'
>That is, the Dementor uses language, which is a major part of
>distinguishing Beings from Beasts.

That isn't the dementor speaking, though.  The voice is "shrill, 
high-pitched," and laughing - those three characteristics almost 
always signal Voldemort.  As someone else has already pointed out, 
the words are a quote from the graveyard scene in GoF, implying that 
this is merely one of his worst memories the dementor is bringing up. 
It would be very strange for the dementor to say that to Harry, as it 
doesn't intend to kill him - it wants to suck his soul out.  (Worse, 
but not fatal.)

Note also that Harry can hear the dementors breathing.  It's not 
clear whether their mouths are suited for speech, but one would hope 
that they would use that method rather than telepathy.  They do seem 
to communicate with at least some Ministry officials - perhaps they 
use sign language.


At 7:38 AM -0700 7/4/03, Scott Santangelo wrote:
>Umbridge as a squib?! <snip> It's also unlikely a squib would be 
>sitting in the Wizengamot or serving as assistant to the MoM. I 
>think JK set up Umbridge as a "witch" in the fullest sense of the 
>word.

Umbridge also confesses to sending the dementors after Harry.  It 
seems pretty obvious from her confused testimony that Mrs. Figg 
cannot actually see the dementors any more than Dudley can, although 
(of course) they can both fully feel their effects.  So, if Umbridge 
were a Squib, I find it difficult to believe she could have 
effectively communicated with a dementor to send it after Harry - 
it's very difficult to communicate with someone you can't see!

As a witch in the religious sense, by the way, I find your last 
sentence rather offensive.


At 12:11 PM -0700 7/4/03, Dave Hardenbrook wrote:
>WSJ> When I saw this painting in the Louvre, my jaw dropped - it's 
>Snape! It is,
>WSJ> it is, it IS! <G>
>
>Frankly, it looks more like Sirius to me...

I admit, I have to agree with Dave - not greasy enough to be Snape, 
nor enough hook to the nose.  Maybe it's Phineas as a young man?  :)


At 4:20 PM -0400 7/4/03, EnsTren at aol.com wrote, concerning Merlin's 
mixed parentage:
>But this brings the idea around, does anyone else have non human blood in
>their ancestors?

Several.  Hagrid is, of course, the most obvious - half-giant - along 
with Madame Maxime, but Fleur Delacour is one-quarter Veela, and the 
Veelas (or Vilas, as they're more commonly spelled outside the HP 
universe) are certainly of the faerie folk.  Moreover, while the 
half-giants seem to suffer prejudice based on their heritage, Fleur 
doesn't appear to do so, and is fairly casual about letting 
Ollivander and the other champions know about her Veela grandmother. 
Either French wizarding culture is less hung up on such things, or 
mixing with the faerie folk (at least, the very attractive among 
them) isn't treated with the same horror as other blood-mixing.

This, of course, brings us back around to the Halfbreed!Snape 
theories; anyone want to argue that either (a) the hook-nosed man in 
the Legilimens flashback is a vampire (or, in the wilder theories, a 
polyjuiced dementor), or (b) isn't his real father, despite the 
resemblance?

-- 

  - Boggles, aka J. C. B. Ramon			boggles(at)earthlink.net
"It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the 
act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. "
	- Gauss, in a Letter to Bolyai, 1808.