OOP: Fountain of magical breatheren

[Brooke]

No: HPFGUIDX 63799

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "rachelbeth007" 
<rstephens at n...> wrote:
> --- 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


I think maybe the Magical Brethren fountain depicts how things used 
to be.  Meaning, there was a time when all magical beings lived in 
relative peace with respect to other magical life forms.  Obviously 
something went wrong... maybe it was during V's (or Grindelwald's) 
reign of terror?  Or maybe there was a war or something even further 
back that caused the status quo?  I wonder why JKR keeps bringing up 
all of those goblin rebellions?  I'm sure it can all be found in 
Hogwarts, A History, but seeing as Hermione is the only one who seems 
to read that book, we may not get all the answers we crave. One thing 
is for sure, as long as the incompetent Fudge is Minister of Magic, I 
don't see a lot of potential for the reconcilation of wizards and 
magical creatures... 

Brooke