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

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 85932

 "Claire" <
> 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

> 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?
  
Something unpleasant, but hopefully not lethal.  Speaking of Fred and 
George, the idea of these Snackboxes revolted me. Plus, later on in 
the book when they are busy getting other students to act as testers -
that really bothered me for some reason.  I can't really figure out 
why - this is the wizard world where broken bones repair overnight 
and all sorts of hexes make unpleasant things happen that can be 
quickly cleared up.  But, these tests really bothered me.

> 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?

I think just to make an example of him to his other devoted 
followers, as in "Step out of line and you're history."  As for what 
he was asked to do?  Who knows? Maybe he was supposed to kill a bunch 
of mixed blood children and discovered he really didn't have the 
stomach for that.  Maybe he was supposed to betray his brother, and 
found out that blood is thicker than water...

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

Well, why couldn't there be two people in the Black family (or 
possibly three if we throw in Uncle Alphard) who didn't buy into the 
pure blood bit?  Or maybe that Ted Tonks really had a lot going for 
him ;-)

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

In the mists of time. It's that old 'We've been here forever, and we 
have a lot of money, so of course we're better than you."  I'd like 
to know what the Blacks of Sirius' parents' generation did for a 
living.  Or did they all simply sit on their piles of gold sneering 
at everyone else?

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

More information needed.  Was he a pure-blood little prince until he 
got to Hogwarts?  Did his parents cultivate their son's friendship 
with James Potter in the years before Hogwarts because of whatever 
position or wealth the Potter family had, only to regret it later?  


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

Hadn't thought about it, but that house was creepy enough to make 
anything possible.  And, if it is blood, whose is it?
 
 
> 9)  Why is Ginny the only one impervious to the music box's 
> weakening effects and is able to shut it?

Maybe she's tone-deaf.
 
> 10)  Why did Sirius's father put "every security measure known to 
> wizardkind" on the house?

If he was more than just a casual dabbler in the Dark Arts, he may 
have wanted to make his house as secure as possible against intrusion 
by anyone, including those nosy Ministry officials. 
 
> 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".

I think the tapestry leaves us with a lot of questions.  If one 
assumes that Slytherin is made up of mostly pure-bloods, then 
shouldn't Snape's name have also been on the tapestry?  You'd think 
that name would have caught Harry's eye, as would the names Weasley 
or Potter...Either we'll discover at a later time that these names 
really are here and Harry just didn't notice, or this is one of the 
many details we obsess over that is of no importance to JKR.


Marianne