CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Chapter Five

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 84622

Chapter 5 Summary

Harry learns that no 12 is Sirius's ancestral house,  and that 
Sirius has offered it to Dumbledore for headquarters. Sirius's 
voice is hard and bitter as he complains that this is the only 
useful thing he's been able to do.

The narrator notes that Harry expected a better welcome. Sirius 
leads Harry downstairs.

The kitchen is in the basement, a cavernous room with rough 
stone walls. Pipe smoke hangs in the air "like battle fumes."  In 
the center of the room is a long wooden table. Mr. Weasley, his 
son Bill and a heap of rags, which turns out to be Mundungus 
Fletcher, are seated together. 

Mrs. Weasley is irritable, scolding everyone but Harry as she 
tries to clear up the detritus of the meeting, and get dinner on the 
table.  Sirius reveals that he's been confined to the house for a 
month. With both the Ministry and Voldemort after him, 
Dumbledore feels there's not much Sirius can do for the Order. 

There's comic relief with a touch of foreboding as the twins try to 
set the table by magic and send a knife plunging into the table 
"point down and quivering ominously, exactly where Sirius's right 
hand had been a moment before." This episode launches Molly 
into a paragraph of capital letters as she screams at her boys.

But Harry and Sirius laugh as Mundungus, swearing, picks 
himself off the floor. Mr. Weasley reminds the twins that they're 
supposed to show responsibility now they're of age. Mrs. 
Weasley continues her rant, but stops short when she comes to 
Percy. She glances in fear at her husband. Arthur looks wooden.

Bill and Lupin step in to calm things down. They all sit down to 
dinner, and after a few minutes of silence several conversations 
ensue. Molly approaches Sirius about a suspected boggart in 
the drawing room and an infestation of doxies. Sirius is 
indifferent and then, Harry thinks, sarcastic.

Tonks entertains Hermione and Ginny with her 
metamorphmagus ability.

Mr. Weasley, Lupin and Bill have an intense conversation about 
goblins. We learn that that even though Voldemort murdered 
goblins in the last war, there's a chance they'll go over to him.

"I think it depends what they're offered," says Lupin. "And I'm not 
talking about gold; if they're offered freedoms we've been 
denying them for centuries, they're going to be tempted."

Bill agrees that anti-wizard feelings are strong. The goblins are 
especially incensed that the Ministry has done little to apprehend 
Ludo Bagman or help the goblins recover the gold he owes to 
them.

Fred, George, Ron and Mundungus roar with laughter as 
Mundungus relates a shady story about how he sold some 
stolen toads back to their original owner.

"I don't know where you learned about right and wrong, 
Mundungus" says Molly, " but you seem to have missed a few 
crucial lessons."

Harry eats so much that Dudley's jeans are tight on him. 
Everybody's quiet and relaxed, when Sirius remarks that he's 
surprised Harry hasn't asked about Voldemort. 

A shiver goes around the room. Lupin is suddenly wary, lowering 
his goblet slowly. . (Alert readers have noted that despite being a 
werewolf, Lupin is apparently unaffected by silver  when in 
human form.) Harry indignantly protests that he asked Ron and 
Hermione at once, but was told that they weren't allowed in the 
Order

Molly is now bolt upright, every trace of drowsiness gone. She 
says that Harry is too young to be told.

Sirius begins insisting that Harry has a right to know what's been 
happening, but he's interrupted by Fred and George, who protest 
that Sirius hasn't told them one stinking thing. This precipitates a 
quarrel between Mrs. Weasley and Sirius. Mrs. Weasley tells us 
that Dumbledore's orders are that Harry be told only what he 
needs to know, and states that this is different than allowing 
Harry to ask whatever he likes.

Mrs. Weasley thinks that Sirius wants to involve Harry against 
Dumbledore's orders because Harry reminds him of James. 

Sirius denies this, but Mrs. Weasley disagrees with him. Sirius, 
feeling that he's being accused of being irresponsible, begins to 
get angry. Molly retaliates with the scathing remark that Sirius 
wasn't exactly available while he was in Azkaban.

Molly turns to Arthur and then to Lupin hoping they'll back her up, 
but both feel that the situation has changed and Harry needs to 
be told the facts.

There's more uproar as Molly and Sirius spar over who has 
responsibility for Harry, but finally Molly gives in and withdraws 
with Ginny, who is utterly furious at being the only child not 
allowed to stay in the room. 

Finally Harry asks the questions that have been tormenting him 
for a month. 
Where's Voldemort? What's he doing?

Sirius and Lupin explain that Voldemort's plans were upset 
when Harry escaped and informed Dumbledore of Voldemort's 
return. Lupin says that the Order knows more than Voldemort 
thinks they do. As many readers have long suspected, this is 
indeed a war of spies.

 But the Ministry is still refusing to believe to believe that 
Voldemort is back. Fudge's suspicion and jealousy of 
Dumbledore have grown to the point where he has ordered the 
Ministry and the Daily Prophet to discredit him. Dumbledore has 
lost his position on the Wizengamot and his seat in the 
International Confederaton of wizards, but  says he isn't worried 
as long as he's still on the Chocolate Frog cards. 

The difficulties the Order has in recruiting people to help are 
detailed. We learn that Kingsley Shacklebolt is in charge of the 
hunt for Sirius and has been misdirecting it.

Lupin and Sirius explain that Voldemort has been trying to recruit 
followers in secret, using trickery, blackmail and jinxes. And then 
Sirius mentions that Voldemort is after something else.

Harry immediately asks what it is. Lupin and Sirius exchange 
"the most fleeting of looks" before Sirius answers, speaking 
vaguely of something Voldemort didn't have before, like a 
weapon. Harry is trying to find out what kind of weapon when 
Mrs. Weasley returns. She is trembling and furious as she 
orders her younger children to bed. Harry says he wants to join 
the Order and fight. It is not Mrs. Weasley who silences him, but 
Lupin. 

"There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any 
of you...I think Molly's right, Sirius. We've said enough."

Sirius does not argue and the chapter closes as Harry, 
recognizing defeat, follows the rest of the younger set up the 
stairs.


QUESTIONS:

1. Why isn't Sirius happier to see Harry?

2. In chapter four, Molly seemed a bit anxious, but she was 
thrilled to see Harry and nowhere near as irritable as she is 
when we meet her again a few hours later in chapter five. Is her 
change in mood due to something that happened at the 
meeting? Did the Order just find out that Voldemort is after 
something in the Department of Mysteries? Have they been told 
that it concerns Harry? 

3. We've been given to understand that the  shrewd and cunning 
goblins are nobody's fools, not easily subjected to jinxes, tricks 
or blackmail. Yet Lupin thinks  they will be tempted to join 
Voldemort even though they know he has murdered their kind. 
Why?

4. Is Molly's attempt to involve Sirius in the housecleaning a good 
idea, or would she have been wiser to leave him alone?

5. Harry seems equally interested in the lighthearted efforts of 
Tonks and Mundungus to entertain the other youngsters, and in 
the more intense, grownup conversations going on. But he 
doesn't take part in any of the talk until Sirius asks him. Why?

6. Where does Molly expect people to learn about right and 
wrong?

7. Earlier, Aunt Petunia revealed an unexpected knowledge of the 
wizarding world. Now, Molly has an Aunt Petunia moment and 
refuses to let Harry ask questions. What is the significance of 
this switch? Why does Molly feel it would be dangerous to let  
Harry ask questions? Is there a difference between telling Harry 
what he needs to know and letting him ask whatever he likes, or 
is this a distinction without a difference and an indication of 
Molly's illogical state of mind?

8. Molly and Sirius  act like  stereotypical parents in this chapter: 
Molly the overprotective, interfering  Mum and Sirius the feckless 
single Dad.  Is this consistent with their portrayal in the rest of 
the series?  Are these  caricatures harmless entertainment or do 
they foster sexism? 

9. What is the significance of the "fleeting glance" that Sirius and 
Lupin exchange? Are they privy to information the others do not 
have about the Prophecy and if so, how do they know it? When 
Lupin says that the Order knows more than Voldemort thinks it 
does, is this true only because Voldemort's spy  hasn't made a 
report on tonight's meeting yet <veg>? 

10. Why does Lupin bring the conversation to a close before 
Harry can ask the question he'll immediately put to Ron and 
Hermione in the next chapter: where is the weapon being kept? 
What are the dangers Lupin says the others have no idea of?  
What does it say about Lupin and Sirius's relationship that 
Sirius, who argues with everyone else, even Dumbledore, 
accepts Lupin's decision at once and without question?


Pippin