Trelawney, Polyjuice Potion, house elves and Fudge

[Pat]

No: HPFGUIDX 113182

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sad1199" <sad1199 at y...> wrote:
> sad1199 here:
> 
> 
> 1. [snip]... 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?"

[snip]

BUT! Trelawney made the prophecy! Wouldn't she 
> of all people know when Harry Potter's birthday was? 

Pat here:

I agree with others that I don't think she remembers what she says 
when she actually gives a real prophecy.  When Harry heard her say 
the the Dark Lord was coming back with the help of his servant 
(Pettigrew), she didn't remember it 30 seconds after she said it 
when Harry tried to ask her about it.  And I somehow doubt that 
Dumbledore would have trusted her with such valuable information.  
Also, at the end of OotP, when Dumbledore shows Harry the prophecy 
in the pensieve, he says that, even though the prophecy has been 
destroyed, there is one person who remembers it--the one to whom it 
was made (note that he doesn't include the one who made the 
prophecy).

 
> 2. Polyjuice Potion. [snipping]....

One more thing, does Snape 
> have some idea that Moody is Barty Jr.? He knew something was 
amiss 
> with Quirrell.

Pat here:

That's a good point.  Snape does seem to be dead on about Quirrell, 
but perhaps there is something about the Polyjuice Potion that makes 
it quite different--after all, Dumbledore was fooled as well.

 
> 3. If house elves are so low on the social chain, how come the two 
> elves in our story are so powerful? 
[snips for brevity]

She uses her own brand of magic to bind Jr. to her 
> but it is broken when she is stunned. 

Pat here:

Well, the way I see this is rather hard to explain.  I'll try to do 
it without offending anyone.  I think if you go back to the 
relationship of slaves and masters (in the US in the south), you'll 
find stories (and maybe that's all they are) of the slaves really 
having a certain amount of power within the family stucture.  I'm 
thinking of the slave women who were nannies to the plantation 
owners' children.  They had some authority over the children, at 
least when they were little.  They were not free to leave but 
because they were part of the household, they would have had an 
enormous amount of information about the family that was of a 
confidential nature.  That, in itself, would have given the slaves 
some amount of control over the masters.

There seems to be some of the same sort of thing with the house 
elves.  They are bound to serve the family, yet they are recognized 
for having their own powerful magic.  In the case of Winky, she had 
done a lot to help Crouch Sr hide and take care of Crouch Jr.  He 
trusted her--partly because he had no other choice--she knew things 
about him that could have destroyed his career and landed him in 
Azkaban.

It will be interesting to find out just how powerful the house elves 
are--I think they are more powerful than we have yet seen.  (ie, 
Dobby leaving the Malfoys without permission several times; using 
his magic to attack Lucius to protect Harry at the end of COS, etc.)

 
> 4. I still think Fudge is a bad guy. > Thank you for all 
responses. Have a Happy Love Filled Day.  [snipped]

sad1199

Pat here:

I completely agree with you.  I at one time, thought Fudge might be 
a DE, but now I think he's just the evil politician type, interested 
in saving his own skin at the expense of anyone who gets in his way.

Good questions--they are some of the same things I've struggled with 
in GOF.

Pat