CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 22 - St. Mungo's Hospital

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 104480

Wendy wrote the chapter summary in 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/104467 :

<< A flash of flame appears, and a single golden feather floats onto
the floor: a warning from Fawkes that Umbridge is coming. >>

Fawkes gave several golden feathers as warnings in OoP; I wonder if
any of them will become wand cores.

<< Moody growls, "'Course he's worried . . . The boy's seeing things
from inside You-Know-Who's snake. Obviously, Potter doesn't realise
what that means, but if You-Know-Who's possessing him - " Harry
removes the extendable ear, feeling his heart race and his face flush.
The others stare at him, looking fearful. >>

And demonstrating the proverb that eavesdroppers will hear things they
don't like.

<< What are the implications of portrait people being able to move
freely within their own portraits? Can each person appear in only one
at any given time? In what other ways could this be useful to Harry,
or the Order; conversely, how could this prove dangerous? >>

Apparently they can appear in only one portrait at a time, because
they are absent from the portrait Harry is watching at times we know
that they are in other portraits. I wonder if painted people like The
Fat Lady and Sir Cadogan and the mermaid in the prefects' bath are
portraits of actual people or are they fictional people created by
painters who were illustrating fictional stories. If the latter, they
would be animated with some other spell than the one that absorbs the
living model's personality from having bits of their body tissues
mixed in the paint. It doesn't seem right to me that there would only
be one painted Don Quixote (for example) who moves among all the
different paintings of the man from La Mancha in all their different
painting styles. 

I have no idea whether it would be possible for DD to transfigure
Harry into paint so that one of the protrait people could grab him by
the hand, pull him into the painting, and lead him to another painting
in another place. Where somehow someone would have to de-transfigure
him.

<< Do the images in the chocolate frog cards have this ability as
well? >>

IMHO it seems unlikely that mass-produced printed pictures on trading
cards would have more power than mass-produced printed photographs
(e.g. in the Daily Prophet) and even than the only print made from the
original negative. OTOH they do leave their cards while Harry is
looking at them.

<< What is the overall function of the silver instrument? And what, 
in this instance, did Dumbledore learn from it? What is the meaning 
of his question, "in essence divided?" >>

This is probably the main question of the whole volume, and maybe all
of us will be surprised when we find out. One theory is that he was
asking whether Harry and Voldemort were still separate beings or had
merged. Another is that he was asking whether Tom Riddle and Voldemort
were still separate beings or had merged. It would be symmetrical if
another theory suggested he was asking whether TMR and HP were
separate beings.

<< Can Phineas, obviously a Slytherin and member of the Black family,
be trusted? >>

I thought he was forced by some kind of dead headmasters' oath to be
trustworthy to the living Headmaster of Hogwarts. Of course, that
means that someday a portrait of Dumbledore will have to assist in the
evil schemes of some evil Headmaster.

In order for live-Phineas to have been the most hated Headmaster that
Hogwarts ever had, he must have been much worse than charmingly sassy
portrait-Phineas.

Is there another portrait of Phineas in Malfoy Manor? Is it possible
that Lucius doesn't know that such a portrait is DD's ally?

<< What caused Harry to have that urge to kill Dumbledore? Was it
connected to the visions? Was he being possessed by Voldemort? >>

I thought there was no doubt that it was connected to the visions: 
due to the scar link, when Harry looked at DD, DD drifted into LV's
thoughts, stirring up violent hatred in LV's mind, which Harry felt
through the scar link. The visions are Harry seeing what LV sees, and
this is LV seeing what Harry sees, and this is not the only example of
Harry feeling what LV feels. However, this is not *possession* because
LV was not *controlling* Harry or Harry's body .

<< How might Fred's comment to Sirius ("I don't see you risking your
neck!") have affected Sirius? Might this have contributed to Sirius'
attitude and actions later in the book? >>

Sirius was very good in that conversation. He controlled himself and
calmly explained to Fred that there are things worth dying for, and
Arthur had taken the risk for something he believed to be worth it. I
think he completely forgot Fred's remark while he was enjoying his
holiday guests, so it did not contribute to goading him to get out of
the house (as Snape's taunts did). However, I think Harry should
remember what Sirius said: there are things worth dying for, Sirius
accepted that risk, Sirius died for something he thought was worth it
(rescuing Harry). Harry should dream (normal dream, not a vision) of
Sirius telling him: "Harry, it was worth it."

<< Why are the adults so reluctant to discuss any of the details of
this situation with the children? >>

By 'any of the details', you mean telling them that Harry had been
seeing from inside LV's snake? Through the scar connection? Possibly
only DD knew that it was because of the scar connection -- he seems to
like to keep even the adults mystified. DD must have instructed the
members of the Order not to tell Harry anything about his mind link
with LV so that LV could not find out that the Order knew about it by
looking in Harry's mind -- why did he later decide it was safe to have
Snape tell Harry about it? 

<< Do the adults (and Moody in particular) really care about Harry as
a person, or do they mostly see him as a pawn in the fight against
Voldemort? >>

Well, you answered this better than I could. Still, I can't think that
either Molly or Sirius thinks of Harry as a pawn. Molly seems not to
think of him even as taking part in the war against LV, but only as an
endangered child to be protected (and to be kept ignorant as part of
over-protectiveness). Even when she said DD has expected something
like this might happen, I felt she was speaking like a sick child's
mother quoting the physician.

People can argue whether Sirius cares about Harry as a person, or as 
a legacy from James, or as James returned, or as an equally immature
playmate, but surely Sirius is opposed to treating Harry as a pawn.
There's a theory out there that Good!Dumbledore, possibly via
Good!Lupin, offed Sirius because Sirius would not allow Harry to be
sent to his death as a sacrificial lamb for the defeat of LV (if
Sirius found out that that was the plan.)