OOP: Fountain of magical breatheren

[rachelbeth007]

No: HPFGUIDX 63783

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "happyduck1979" <swirskyr at r...> 
wrote:
> Ok,can someone please explain that fountain to me?  First of all, was 
> it bewitched by Dumbledore to help fight, or was it designed ot 
> protect the atrium of the ministry or what.  All I know is that all 
> of a sudden the foundtain was fighting the Dark Lord!  

Since the fountain seems pretty inanimate during Harry's duel with Bellatrix, 
I'm thinking Dumbledore did something to bewitch the statues into action.  
Perhaps they only spring to life at DD's command?  Is he using some for of 
inanimate-to-animate transfiguaration?  I'm not terribly shocked that he would 
be able to do this because DD is quite the bad-ass wizard, but I found it pretty 
suprising just the same (especially when the headless wizard jumped up).  I 
had to reread it like 5 times to make sure I wasn't just hallucinating things at 6 
AM.

> Also aboutthe fountain but on a totally different track.  Why is it 
> that magicalbreathren are considered wizards, witches, goblins, 
> cenotaours and house elves.  We certainly see other things capable of 
> magic (the valentines delivering dwarves in COS and the leprechauns 
> in GOF just to name a few).  And with the way house-elves are 
> treated, I am uncertain why they would have made it in. 
> 

I'm wondering if things like dwarves and leprechauns have been bred into 
existence (i.e. Goblin + elf = dwarf???).  Or perhaps, they were simply not 
around at the beginning of the magical world as the other beings were.

What I felt was the most interesting about the brethren fountain was the fact 
that the statues were positioned in such a way that "The last three [centaur, 
house-elf, and goblin] were all looking adoringly up at the witch and wizard." 
(127)  From what we learn from the centaurs later in OotP, it seems this pose 
might not truly reflect the way these other brethren perceive witches and 
wizards.  I assume the fountain was erected by W&Ws, so this depiction is 
probably biased in its perspective of the relationship between human and 
nonhuman creatures.  

Knowing that JKR likes to infuse her work with commentary on society (SPEW 
anyone?), I think this was a subtle glimpse of how W&Ws see themselves, 
which is later contradicted by the centaurs.  True, house-elves seem pretty 
obedient and loyal , but perhaps there is a historical reason for their position 
in society (and maybe they don't have wands because wizards are trying to 
keep them down).  Real-life parallels for this commentary could be found 
perhaps in the relationship between , western culture and "primitive" societies 
(i.e. Native Americans being "cultured" by explorers and missionaries) etc. 

The Fountain of Magical Brethren was fascinating.  Just another great thing 
about OotP.   JKR ROX!

Rachel