The Death Chamber

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 81768


> > Annemehr (before):
> > Yes, but I'm sure she didn't read about anything in the DoM in a book,
> > so if she "understood" somewhat, could it be because she *sensed*
> > something?  I would call that being affected, <snip>


Iggy: 
> Hermione has, IMHO, an analytical enough mind to figgure out what
the room
> is probably for... or at least get some inkling.  Not all of her
> understanding and such comes solely from books and teachers.  (That
would be
> discrediting her mind...)
> 
> There's also a diference between having an insight / sensing what the
> purpose of a room or item is, and actually being affected by a
particular
> item in the room.

Annemehr:
Everything you've said is true, however I read Hermione's reaction to
be too visceral to be the response to an intellectually perceived
danger.  She *could* have been sensing basically the same thing as the
others but to be repelled rather than attracted.

Iggy: 
> In addition, Hermione and Ron could have been affected by it, but to
such a
> small degree as to shrug it off.  (Much like the difference between
putting
> the tip of your tongue briefly to the contacts of a 9v battery, and
hooking
> your tonghue up to your car battery with jumper cables.)

Annemehr:
Ow.
But that would work with what I wrote above -- Hermione sensed it to
some extent, but she felt fear rather than attraction.  Okay, so she
didn't shrug it off IMO, but yes she could have gotten the 9v version.

Iggy:

> 
> The only other thing I can think of is that Ginny had been posessed
by the
> spirit of Tom Riddle in Cos, and that posession had probably left
some long
> lasting marks.  (Tom Riddle had seen deaths even before he imprinted
himself
> on the diary.  As a residue of that, Ginny may have the sense of
having seen
> death, but since it was a posession memory, she won't understand it
tnough
> to actually see the Thestrals.  At least... not yet.)
> 
> Just a thought.

Annemehr:

That *is* a thought.  When Ginny was possessed and lying in the
Chamber, she was very near death.  Harry has also been very near death
(not just situationally, as when duelling with Voldemort, but
physically when pierced by the basilisk fang).  Maybe being entranced
by the veil happens if you've nearly "gone through it" so to speak. 
Do you suppose Neville nearly died when his great-uncle Algie dropped
him, or on that night when the Death Eaters came and tortured his
parents?  And Luna we know next to nothing about, for all we know she
once almost died.

If you've "seen" death, you see thestrals.  Maybe if you've nearly
died, you're drawn by the veil.  How could this possibly mesh with
what I just wrote about Hermione?  I don't know -- maybe she came
close enough to death once back in her pre-Hogwarts life and she (or
her parents) were *very* afraid?  Yet I can't see her ever going so
far as to become a ghost...

Annemehr
very nearly demonstrating the ability to hold two opposing opinions at
the same time