OoP: 2 things I keep coming back to - Hermione & the Veil

[Rach]

No: HPFGUIDX 61667

SPOILER ALERT (Obviously)

Hermione's flaws:

Hermione is too perfect, I agree. The only other character I have 
ever felt was also too perfect is Dumbledore. He has now shown 
himself to be human and therefore fallible - fully capable of 
mistakes with tragic consequences. The fact that his misjudgements 
relating to Harry and Sirius were motivated by love does not change 
the reality. 

I don't doubt for a second that Hermione will have her flaws 
revealed. In fact her feelings towards House Elves in particular 
reveals a hint of this. She is what can sometimes be called a "do-
gooder" someone who thinks they know what is best, but actually ends 
up hurting those she is trying to help. We're already learning from 
Harry that you always hurt the ones you love, and I think we will see 
this flaw revealed in Hermione also. For Australian readers, this 
puts me in mind very much of the Stolen Generation issues, with do-
gooders wanting to help correct what they see as an injustice, or 
social problem so much, they destroy the lives of those they are 
trying to help.

The Veil:

I believe the veil (archway) in the Department of Mysteries is the 
door to death (or afterlife or whatever). Nearly Headless Nick 
admitted to Harry that the reason he is a ghost is because he was 
afraid of death. Perhaps when a wizard dies they are transported in a 
ghost like form to the room in the department of mysteries and are 
either brave enough to walk through the veil to true death, or remain 
as a ghost. 

This theory isn't in keeping with Professor Binns dying in his 
armchair by the fire and getting up to teach the next morning or 
Moaning Myrtle waiting in the bathroom for someone to find her body, 
but Luna and Harry (who have both seen death) are both able to hear 
voices beyond the veil, so there's obviously something going on 
behind there. 

What confuses me (and I will have to re-read the chapter to check, 
unfortunately my housemate has seized the book so I cant re-read it 
until he's finished!) is when Sirius was killed by Bellatrix - I 
think she only stunned him but  when the stupefy spell hit him he 
fell through the archway. Lupin's reaction confirmed that there was 
no coming back from there and that he was actually dead.  Did she 
actually kill him, or did he accidentally fall through the threshold 
to death?  I truly believe he would have stayed around as a ghost for 
Harry's benefit if he had a choice. It seemed to me after the 
revelations about his family he really only had Harry and memories of 
James to live for anyway. 





--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "txjen70" <jen60565 at a...> wrote:
> Hello, first post here and all.  Spoilers to follow..
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> OK, two things keep nagging at me right now - with more to come I 
am 
> sure.  
> 
> First does Hermione come off as too perfect right now?  I mean I 
> know that the theory is that there are 2 characters you can get 
away 
> with saying about anything, and she is one of them, but she's too 
> perfect. I mean is there anything they don't have her doing?  She's 
> a prefect, top in her class, always has her homework done and helps 
> everyone with theirs, hands out love advice, can do spells equal to 
> 7th year work, fights for the freedom of elves and plans a 
> rebellion.  In fact she's shown as so perfect that when she doesn't 
> remember that Snape is a member of the Order it seems totally OOC.  
> 
> The other thing that came to me as I was falling asleep came out of 
> my mouth in one word - execution.  Does anyone else think that that 
> room with the dais and the archway is or was the way of execution 
> for wizards?  Maybe they stopped with executions, and that's why it 
> is in ruins, but that's what came to mind.  I mean we don't know 
> what killed Sirius.  Was it AK?  We just know a light hit him, but 
> maybe it wasn't AK and the fact that it knocked him back into the 
> arch was what killed him.  I really wonder.