CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS - Chapter 6 - The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black

[Claire]

No: HPFGUIDX 85863

Questions are at the end because they are in the order that they 
occurred to me.  I know there are far more than I could come up with 
and I've tried (no doubt unsucessfully) to not duplicate what's 
already been discussed with this chapter.  However, since the 
information contained in it is fairly significant, repetition is not 
necessarily a bad thing.  Happy discussing and Happy Thanksgiving to 
all my U.S. compatriots.

Claire


Chapter Summary:

Following Sirius's revelations, Molly sends everyone to bed, 
ostensibly because there is so much to do the next day.  Once Harry 
and Ron are in their room, with the door locked because Kreacher 
wanders where he pleases, Fred and George apparate onto their beds 
to discuss the "weapon".  They come to no conclusion as to what or 
how large it is, but they all wonder about the "horrors this weapon 
could perpetuate".  We also find out that Ginny's size is no barrier 
to her power with the Bat-Bogey Hex.

The next morning, Harry and Ron enter the drawing room, "a long, 
high-ceilinged room on the first floor with olive green walls 
covered in dirty tapestries."  Dust rises from the carpet at every 
step and the velvet curtains buzz.  Molly, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and 
George are wearing cloths tied over their noses and mouths, and hold 
spray bottles containing a black liquid--Doxycide.  Doxys have shiny 
beetle-like, tiny needle-sharp teeth and fairy-like bodies covered 
with thick black hair, and four arms.  Sirius enters the room after 
feeding Buckbeak and examines the locked cabinet that has been 
shaking.  He tells Molly he thinks it's a boggart, but wants Mad Eye 
to look at it to be sure.

Harry shuts the door and Molly consults "Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide 
to Household Pests" on how to deal with Doxys--they bite and their 
teeth are poisonous.  She has an antidote but would rather not have 
to use it.  Once sprayed, Doxys are paralyzed and can be handled.  
On her word, they all spray at once.  Harry caught one full in the 
face; paralyzed, it falls to the ground and Harry throws it into a 
bucket.  He's surprised to see Fred and George pocket one and asks 
why.  George replies they want to experiment with the venom for 
their Skiving Snackboxes--sweets to make you ill, not seriously but 
ill enough to miss classes you don't want to attend.  One end makes 
you ill, the other revives you.  The twins are carrying on with 
their joke shop, thanks to Harry's Triwizard Tournament winnings.  
They don't have premises yet, but are advertising in "The Daily 
Prophet".  They know it's safe because Molly won't read it anymore 
because of the articles about Harry.

Once the curtains are free of Doxys, Molly decides to wait until 
after lunch to tackle the cabinets.  These stand on either side of 
the mantelpiece and are crammed full of odd things--rusty daggers, 
claws, a coiled snakeskin, a number of tarnished silver boxes 
inscribed with languages Harry can't understand, and an ornate 
crystal bottle with a large opal set into the stopper that Harry is 
sure contains blood.

Mundungus Fletcher arrives with a load of cauldrons, which sets 
Molly off on a tirade.  While they all listen to Molly carry on, 
Kreacher, the house elf, edges into the room.  He is very old, wears 
a filthy rag like a loincloth, and mutters nasty things about 
everyone under his breath as if they can't hear him--calling Molly a 
blood traitor, Fred and George are brats and unnatural beasts, 
Hermione a Mudblood.  He tells Sirius he is cleaning, but Sirius 
says he's only pretending so he can sneak items out of the room and 
hide them, especially the tapestry that has been in the family for 
seven generations.  Sirius thinks his mother put a Permanent 
Sticking Charm on it so it cannot be removed.

The tapestry looked extremely old and seems to have been gnawed by 
Doxys in places, although the embroidery of golden thread still 
shone brightly.  It shows a family tree dating back, as far as Harry 
can tell, to the Middle Ages.  Words at the top of the tapestry 
read "The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black 'Toujours Pur'".  
Looking closely, Harry discovers Sirius is not on the family tree.  
Sirius says his mother blasted him off when he ran away from home at 
16--to James Potter's home.  Sirius left because of his family's 
pure-blood mania.  His brother, Regulus, joined the Death Eaters, 
but was murdered at Voldemort's command.  Others on the Black family 
tree include Phineas Nigellus, Sirius's great-great-grandfather and 
the least popular Hogwarts headmaster; Araminta Meliflua, his 
mother's cousin who wanted Muggle-hunting legislation; and his Aunt 
Elladora, who started the tradition of beheading the house elves.  
Tonks and her mother, Andromeda, are no longer on the tapestry--they 
too have been disowned.  However, Andromeda's sisters are there.  
Bellatrix and Narcissa.  Both made good marriages to pure-bloods--
Bellatrix to Rodolphus Lestrange and Narcissa to Lucius Malfoy.  And 
Molly and Arthur Weasley, related to Sirius, would never be on it--
blood traitors they are although pure bloods.  Harry is surprised 
Sirius is related to the Malfoys and recalls he has seen Bellatrix 
before--in Dumbledore's Pensieve.

Sirius and Harry talk about being stuck in places where they don't 
want to be.  Sirius says the house is perfect for Headquarters but 
he feels useless.  He doesn't like the inactivity.  Harry asks 
Sirius if he can come back to live if the hearing goes badly, and 
Sirius replies with a sad "we'll see".

That afternoon, the group tackles the cabinet, which indeed contains 
a number of nasty items.  Sirius is bitten by a silver snuffbox that 
contains Wartcap powder (Fred and George sneak  that one away).  
Harry finds a silver instrument like a many-legged pair of tweezers 
that tries to puncture his skin (Sirius smashes it with "Nature's 
Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy".  A music box plays a tune that 
makes them all weak and sleepy until Ginny slams it shut.  An Order 
of Merlin, First Class that Sirius says belonged to his father 
for "giving a load of gold".  Kreacher tries several times to sneak 
things out of the rubbish when they're not looking, but Sirius 
catches him every time.

After decontaminating the drawing room the group moves on to the 
dining room.  The Black china and several old photographs in silver 
frames are thrown out.  Kreacher continues to wander in and out, his 
comments becoming more offensive each time.  Other things are 
tackled--a bathroom where a ghoul lurks (Tonks helped with that), a 
grandfather clock that shoots bolts as passers-by (Lupin assisted 
there), and a wardrobe containing a set of purple robes that tried 
to strangle Ron (Mundungus freed Ron).

Harry is feeling better than he has all summer, but that comes to a 
halt when Molly reminds him the hearing is the next day.  She tells 
Harry he will accompany Mr. Weasley to work, but that no one else, 
especially Sirius, will be allowed to go--on Dumbledore's orders.  
Finding out Dumbledore had been at Headquarters the night before but 
made no attempt to see him makes Harry feel worse than ever.

Questions (in no particular order):

1)  What kind of reaction would someone have to Doxy poison that 
makes obtaining one so attractive to Fred and George for their 
Skivving Snackbox experiments?

2)  Why did Voldemort order Regulus Black's murder?  Was is just 
because he decided to leave the Death Eaters (the date of his death 
seems to be around the time of Harry`s birth)?  What was he being 
asked to do that panicked him enough to try to get out?

3)  What made Andromeda Tonks go against the pure-blood ethics of 
her family when her sisters were so obviously devoted to it?

4)  Where does the Black family's pure-blood arrogance have its 
roots?  Does "Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy" hold the key?

5)  What made Sirius come to hate his family's obsession with pure 
blood?

6)  Could the crystal phial with the opal stopper hopper hold blood, 
as Harry assumes?  If so, could it literally be "pure blood"?

7)  Why does Kreacher continue to make scurrilous comments about 
everyone when house elves are supposed to obey members of the family 
they serve?  He does not do what Tonks asks but is it really because 
she is not on the tapestry, as Sirius believes?

8)  Can the Permanent Sticking Charm be undone only be the person 
who cast the spell?

9)  Why is Ginny the only one impervious to the music box's 
weakening effects and is able to shut it?

10)  Why did Sirius's father put "every security measure known to 
wizardkind" on the house?

11)  If pure bloods are so limited that they have to intermarry, and 
Molly and Arthur are related to the Blacks, shouldn't some Weasley 
ancestor be on the family tree?  Surely they couldn't all be "blood 
traitors".