Veil Room at MoM in OotP

[macfotuk at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 109302

I am sure this subject was done to death and spotted at the time (or 
since) and while I've read TONS on it I don't recall this particular 
strand that occurred when re-reading the 'department of mysteries' 
and 'beyond the veil' chapters recently - apologies to anyone whose 
prior ideas are not cited:

1. When the rescuing 6 first encounter the fateful veil room Harry 
is drawn to the arch. Harry is standing on the dais itself when he 
utters just two words - "Sirius" and then later "Yeah". It is at 
this point that he 'snaps back' out of the trance the veil has had 
on him and moves out of the room at Hermione's insistence. Was it 
Hermione that got him off the dais or that he had given the veil the 
name of its next sacrificial victim? I hate this idea but it is just 
the kind of tragic Shakespearian hand-of-fate type thing that JKR 
might do - namely that Harry sealed Sirius' fate without realising 
it by uttering those words - the only other victim the veil would 
otherwise have accepted being Harry himself as the person who had 
voluntarily (well as much as any victim responding to the calls of 
the sirens can be considered voluntary) put his head on the line 
(foot on the dais). I hate this idea and want it not to be the case.
 
Hermione's readings, judgements and assessments are almost always 
spot-on and this was the room in the MoM that most freaked her out. 
We end up finding something about why later when it is the scene of 
Sirius' death.

At the same time I think it significant that neither Hermione nor 
Ron could sense the voices or the palpably sinister attaction of the 
arch and they can't see Thestrals either, while Luna, Ginny* and 
Neville, who all can, are almost as fascinated as Harry by the veil 
when first they encounter it.

*Not sure if Ginny can see Thestrals, but even if not her possession 
by LV (as TR in CoS) might serve as the sensitisation necessary to 
allow her to be responsive to the magical allures of the veil.