CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 9, The Woes of Mrs. Weasley - Discussion Questions

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 88383

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "abigailnus" <abigailnus at y...> 
wrote:
> Chapter 9 - The Woes of Mrs. Weasley
> 
> Discussion Questions:
> 
> 1. How common do you think Muggle-baiting is?  Arthur's 
> statement that it might strike some people as funny suggests 
> that this is perhaps an attitude that he's encountered in the 
> past.  

It has to be pretty common, since cleaning up the effects of Muggle-
baiting seems to be the main purpose of Arthur's job.  An entire 
department of the Ministry, however tiny and disrespected, dedicated 
to the misuse of Muggle artifacts -- we're not talking a few 
isolated incidents here.  As for Arthur, he *is* condescending by 
our standards, but by the standards of pureblood wizards, he's 
positively enlightened.  I do think it says a lot about the current 
Ministry attitudes that Arthur's job did not go to a Muggleborn 
wizard.

> 2.  Arthur's statement that Lucius Malfoy was trying to sneak 
> into the courtroom is presumably a misdirection on JKR's part.  
> The corridor in which Harry and Arthur find him is the one 
> leading to the Department of Mysteries - was he perhaps 
> trying to sneak in?  What business does Lucius have with Fudge?
> 
> 3. Lucius greets Harry as 'Patronus Potter'. <snip> Is it 
significant that the only 
> two people we've met who've used this fashion of referring to 
> people are Death Eaters?

I think that was Lucius' lame attempt to be insulting.  Like Draco, 
Lucius isn't nearly as witty as he thinks he is.

> 7. Hermione's analysis of Sirius is the first instance of many in 
> OOP in which she acts as Harry's emotional interpreter.  Why do 
> you feel Rowling gave this role to Hermione?  

It's the first instant in OOP, but it's not the first in the 
series.  Look at her explanation of Ron's jealousy in GoF, and there 
might be other instances I'm forgetting right now.  Hermione *is* 
more mature than both Harry and Ron (which wouldn't take much, 
frankly), and she often notices emotional undercurrents that the 
boys miss -- look at her response to Neville after Fake!Moody 
demonstrates the Cruciatus curse in GoF.  I think in some ways, 
Hermione is taking over Dumbledore's role as Harry's guide in the 
books, as Dumbledore becomes more remote and fallible.  

> 
> 10. We already know why Harry wasn't selected for Prefect, but 
> do you feel that Ron was a good choice?  Does he truly have 
> latent leadership qualities or did Rowling select him simply to 
> make Harry jealous (and because, apart from Harry, he's the 
> Gryffindor boy with whom we have the most contact)?  What do 
> you feel might have been Dumbledore's reasons for selecting Ron 
> as prefect?  Is he perhaps trying to guide Ron in the path of his 
> older brothers?  Would another Gryffindor boy have made a better 
> choice?

I actually think that Neville would've been a better choice.  He 
needed a confidence booster as much as Ron did, and had already 
demonstrated, back in PS/SS, the courage to stand up to his peers 
for the good of the house.  But in story terms, Neville is still too 
minor a character.  Plus, his confidence booster came from the DA 
instead.  Actually, I think the whole prefect storyline was kind of 
wasted in the book.  Most of Ron's character development came from 
his role as a Quidditch player, not from his role of prefect.  Of 
course, if he hadn't made prefect, he wouldn't have had a broom to 
get on the Quidditch team with, so perhaps that was its only purpose.

Sorry I didn't answer all the questions, but these are the only ones 
I have anything interesting to say about at the moment.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com