Trelawney, Polyjuice Potion, house elves and Fudge

[sad1199]

No: HPFGUIDX 113079

sad1199 here:

I am now reading GoF, again and, of course, have questions and 
opinions.

1. I know this has been discussed to some degree before but I only 
found one post on this area (if wrong I am sorry): Trelawney thinks 
that Harry was born in mid-winter. GoF (Amer. paperback, page 200)
 "I was saying, my dear, that you were clearly born under the 
baleful influence of Saturn," said Professor Trelawney...    ...I 
think I am right in saying, my dear, that you were born in mid-
winter?"
It was posted before (by Snow, I think) that Trelawney was mixing up 
Harry and Voldemort. BUT! Trelawney made the prophecy! Wouldn't she 
of all people know when Harry Potter's birthday was? If the whole 
wizarding world knows about The-Boy-Who-Lived and she MADE the 
prophecy she should know when his birthday is!

2. Polyjuice Potion. How does Barty Jr.'s mom take the drink every 
hour. Did Sr. leave a batch of hair behind for her? And, after 
taking the potion for some time does a person begin to take on 
attributes of the person they are cloning? I am just amazed when 
Barty Jr. turns Malfoy into a ferret. It made me think that that was 
really Moody but, of course, it wasn't. One more thing, does Snape 
have some idea that Moody is Barty Jr.? He knew something was amiss 
with Quirrell.

3. If house elves are so low on the social chain, how come the two 
elves in our story are so powerful? Winky (a mere house elf) 
persuades her Master to let his son that he has protected under an 
Imperious Curse for years to go in public to the biggest event in 
about 100 years where there are over 100,000 wizards and witches and 
other creatures. She uses her own brand of magic to bind Jr. to her 
but it is broken when she is stunned. Barty Sr. must have a LOT of 
trust in the power of his unworthy house elf to even allow Barty out 
of the house.

4. I still think Fudge is a bad guy. He always seems to do the wrong 
thing at the right time for the bad guys. For instance, WHY, WHY, 
WHY would he bring the dementor in to give the Soul Kiss to Barty 
Jr.? So no one would hear the TRUTH, of course! Again, the truth is 
only known by a select few because of Fudge. There was something I 
didn't like about Fudge in PoA but, I don't have that book in front 
of me now. It was something about why is he so nice to Harry when 
Sirius is loose and then doesn't believe Harry later, or something 
like that. Anyway, my point is I believe Fudge is a.) one of the 
evil ones or b.) under an Imperious Curse or some other curse (by 
whom?).

Thank you for all responses. Have a Happy Love Filled Day.  sad1199