Chapter Discussions: Chapter 3, the Advance Guard

[grahadh]

No: HPFGUIDX 83226

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Ali" <Ali at z...> wrote:
> First posted as message 76055:-

> (Q1) Harry is a teenage boy who at this stage in the story is 
> lacking any guidance, but does he have a hygiene problem? He goes
to sleep in the same dirty, ill-fitting clothes that he is wearing
when we first see him in Chapter 1. He doesn't comb his hair when 
> confined to his room, but is this a symptom of a wider lack of 
> looking after himself? His clothes might only have been dirty 
> because he had been hiding in the flower bed, but is he actually 
> allowed to wash his clothes? Has Petunia washed her hands of all 
> responsibility towards Harry's physical appearance perhaps 
> encouraging his delinquent appearance as it so obviously sets him 
> apart from her and what she stands for, allowing her to despise him 
> even more?

DG:
I think that Harry may have some personal hygiene problems,  but I
think Harry's hygiene serves more to illustrate that Harry has no 
parental guidance at Privet Drive.  There are no adults at Privet 
Drive that care whether or not Harry wears clean clothes or bathes 
because they don't care about him in general.  At Grimmauld Place 
Mrs. Weasley reminds Harry to wash his hair the night before his 
trial, she washes and irons his best clothes, and tries to flatten 
his unruly hair that morning.  She cares about him, wants him to be 
healthy and make a good impression at the trial.  In the WW Harry has
adults that care for him and provide role models for him to follow, not 
so at Privet Drive. 
 

> (Q 5) How did the Advance Guard arrive? Presumably they all 
> apparated, but Harry didn't appear to hear any "popping" sounds 
> which were so loud when Mundungus disapparated that half of Privet 
> Drive seemed to hear him leave – unless the sound is louder
> when disapparating or when the apparition is carried out in the 
> open air?

DG:
I assumed that the Advance Guard arrived the same way they returned:
by broomsticks.  I may be wrong in that assumption, but that is what
made the most sense to me.


> (Q 7) Will Tonk's special talent come into play later or is JKR 
> really overplaying the changing appearance card?

DG:
In my experience it pays to take note when JKR repeats something,
becuase when she repeats it it generally turns up later as something 
more important.  A good example of this in OoP is when she repeatedly 
mentions the witch in the veil in The Hog's Head so that we will 
remember "her" later on when we find out that she is actually Mundungus.  
So, yes, I think Tonk's talent will come into play in the future, whether 
it is through her or through another metamorphmagi, I don't know.
 

> (Q 11) Why when the MoM appear to monitor Harry's presence in
> Privet Drive, do they not monitor – or question – his sudden
> disappearance from there?

DG:
We only see this story through Harry's perspective, so it is hard to
say whether or not the MoM knew about the rescue plan or not.  
Dumbledore may have informed the MoM that he was planning to take 
Harry from Privet Drive, as he had done the previous summers.  So they 
may have already been aware that Harry was leaving, even though Harry 
himself was not aware.  But this just a theory, and not one that I'm particularily attached to.

These are just some of my thoughts to some of the queries posted.
-D.G.