Re-reading COS : questions

[Aesha Williams]

No: HPFGUIDX 94857


    Del came up with some questions after going through COS:

1.And in a world where Metamorphagi (?) exist, I have to ask : have we 
ever seen Malfoy and Snape together ? Or have we ever seen one when 
we know for sure where the other is ? 

    I think we have- during any Potions class. I'm sure they've mentioned Snape making some remark about a Gryffindor and Draco smirking or something at Snape's remark. Even if they hadn't... I don't know, I think that it would be hard for a teacher to teach a class and be a student in the class at the same time.

2. What's up with Penelope Clearwater ? Why did she stay at Hogwarts 
for Christmas if her love affair with Percy wasn't supposed to be 
public, and why was she roaming the castle all alone ? What was she 
doing all alone around the library when everyone had gone down to 
the Quidditch pitch ? Both occurences being especially suspicious in 
the light of her being a Muggle-born, and thus especially at risk of 
being attacked.

    I don't know why she stayed over the Christmas holidays, but perhaps she was on her way to the Quidditch match when she met Hermione. Also, unless it's in JKR's notes on the student body, I'm not sure why you assume Penelope is muggle born. If it's because she was petrified... well, Mrs. Norris was petrified, NHN was petrified... I don't think the basilisk knows who is of what kind of wizarding heritage, and when it met Hermione and Penelope wouldn't have thought to itself, "Well, this one's pureblood, so I'll let her go and just kill the other one." It was just that Penelope and Hermione were in the same place at the same time that caused her to be petrified.

4. Salazar Slytherin, or rather his statue : it is described as 
having an "ancient and monkey-like" face (p. 329). Unusual 
description, which put in my mind the image of a goblin. Could there 
be a connection between SS and the goblins ? Could SS be the 
ultimate fraud, pretending to want to clean Hogwarts of all non-
purebloods when he in fact was half-goblin ?

    Well, are non purebloods just those who are muggle born or the child of a muggle and a witch/wizard? Perhaps someone who is a 'halfblood' would still be considered pureblood if they're a magical creature. I don't know about that, though. 

6. Myrtle's death : Then Tom spoke, Myrtle came out of the cubicle, and died right away. That would mean the Basilisk was right there in the pipe, waiting to get out of it the moment Tom opened the entrance. It doesn't sound terribly realistic to me.

    I may just be dense, but I just assumed that it was the basilisk that came into the bathroom, not that Tom had. Hissing doesn't really sound particularly masculine or feminine to me; I think that if the snake were hissing, she might have assumed it was a boy- because who expects a huge deadly snake to sneak up on them in the bathroom?

Aesha


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]