Dumbledore- Time, Wisdom, & Spies

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 116537


> Steve/bboyminn:
> 
> That's one reason why I don't give much weight to the idea of
> chocolate frog cards acting as spys. I simply don't think that 
> photos have sufficient depth to be anything but a 
> cartoon/caricature verion of the real person. Also, while it has 
> been somewhat implied, we really have never heard a photo 
> communicate in any way. There have been implied minor 
> vocalization, but no photo has ever talked.
> 
> Snow:
> This is an area that has been most puzzling especially since JKR's 
> statement, from the Edinburgh Book Festival, that the portraits 
> more or less repeat catch phrases. I have found several instances 
> were the portrait has presented itself with present day concerns 
> that they communicate about. For instance, there is Phineas who, 
> upon hearing of his great grandson's apparent death appears 
> distraught and proceeds to his Grimmald portrait for verification. 
> (OOP The Lost Prophecy "Am I to understand," [
] "that my great-
> great-grandson-the last of the Blacks-is dead?" [
] 
"I
don't 
> believe it,") Again with Phineas, who makes an astute observation 
> when Dumbledore escapes apprehension, declares to Fudge, that if 
> nothing else Dumbledore has style. (OOP The Centaur and the 
> Sneak "You know Minister, I disagree with Dumbledore on many 
> counts
but you cannot deny he's got style
") These examples
are of 
> present day emotion to a present day situation with a present day 
> applicable emotional response. If a portrait only continues to 
> repeat catch phrases that he had heard or had said in the past how 
> could he possibly react to present circumstances with an emotional 
> verbal response?

Dungrollin:

Didn't JKR say that portraits in general shout catchphrases (Mrs. 
Black), whereas there is something slightly different about the 
portraits of ex-headmasters and -mistresses in DD's study?  I was 
under the impression that she implied it was the old heads who have 
left an impression or aura of themselves on the paintings in the 
study so they can give advice to the current incumbent.

However in answering the question about Harry being able to see 
Sirius again in a painting, JKR was obviously thinking only about 
the paintings in OotP, and forgot about The Fat Lady and Sir Cadogen.
The Fat lady can ask for the passwords, get drunk at Christmas, 
gossip with the other paintings, and be afraid and ashamed enough to 
hide in a map of - was it Derbyshire? - when attacked by Sirius, 
and, like Sir Cadogen, have a (relatively) normal conversation with 
real people.  

So it would seem that the distinction between the two types is 
somewhat blurred.

Dungrollin
Hoping we'll see more of Phineas.