Some More Questions and Comments on OOTP.

[mfterman]

No: HPFGUIDX 127093


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Richard Jones"
<jones.r.h.j at w...> wrote:
 
> (1) What are the magical portraits in DD's office and elsewhere?  
> They talk, have emotions, sleep, travel to other portraits.  What
are 
> they and how are they created?

While we have no hard details, it's pretty clear that magical
portraits are in a sense mystic snapshots of people, carrying a bit of
their personality and memories. Presumably they are painted by a
wizarding painter who can capture something of the person they are
making the portrait of. But in the end they are nothing more than
magical paintings.

> (2) How do thestrals find places?  (For that matter, how did post 
> owls find Sirius when he was in hiding and how do they muggle
houses 
> like Hermione's?)  Do they read the mind of their riders?  I think 
> London cabbies have to pass a written test on the streets of London 
> because the place is so complicated, but the thestrals found
London, 
> the Ministry, and the visitors' entrance without any problem.

Same way owls find places/people: magic.

I know, that's not much an answer, but it's likely to be all the
answer that we're ever going to get on these matters.

> (3) Why was there no night guard on duty at the Ministry the night
of 
> the battle?  There was the might Sturgis Podmore was caught.  Or
was 
> there a guard and the D.E.'s knocked him out and hid him (clearing 
> the path for Harry)?  How did LV waltz into London and the Ministry 
> undetected?

Voldemort cleared away all the guards that night. He *wanted* Harry to
walk into that trap unbothered. There's no hard evidence for this of
course, but given the lengths that Voldemort was going to in order to
ensure Harry went there, I assume that he would take steps to prevent
Harry from being caught by the guards before he reached the Prophecy.

I'm presuming that the other Death Eaters used their magic to kill or
otherwise remove the guards that night, or perhaps Lucius or some
other Ministry official used their influence that way. I tend to
presume the former more than the latter.

> (4) Why were Harry, Ginny, and Neville entranced by the veil and
the 
> others not?  Why could Harry and Luna hear voices and the others 
> didn't?

This is one of those great unanswered questions that we may or may not
get a straight answer to later. It is to be noted that Harry, Ginny
and Neville had each faced more horror than the others, and to them
death on some level might be more entrancing.

> (5) The D.E. Dolohov tried to use "Accio Prophecy" to get the 
> prophecy.  Why didn't Lucius just use that from the start before 
> Harry knew he was there?  He could have avoided a fight that he
lost.

Presumably the prophecies were enchanted to resist such a cheap trick.
They had to be removed by hand and only those directly associated with
them could remove them safely.

> (6) The prophecy says "neither can live while the other survives."  
> Well, aren't both LV and Harry living now?

Metaphorically. Both Harry and Voldemort are to some extent trapped by
thoughts of each other, their existances molded and shaped by the
existance of the other. Harry is obsessed with Voldemort and the
reverse is also true. Only when one of them is dead can the other one
truly get on with their life.

> (7) All that stuff in the DoM on time: I'm guessing time-travel
will 
> reappear.

We'll see.

> (8) Notice how much more significant Hermione and Neville were in
the 
> DoM than Ron or Ginny.  I'm thinking that means in Books 6 and 7, 
> they will be still more prominent.  And the fact that all six were
in 
> this fights means that all six will significant as a group in Books
6 
> and 7.

Actually, if you had said Luna and Neville I would have agreed with
you. Luna had one of the stronger presences, even if she accidentally
nailed Ginny in the crossfire when she blew up Pluto. But Luna was the
last of the girls to go down and the last of the ones still capable of
working magic to go down (Neville being unable to cast spells at that
point).

> (9) Ron's brain attack will be significant.  DD said there will be 
> no "lasting damage," but Pomfrey noted that "thoughts could leave 
> deeper scars than almost anything."

It's a very interesting question what sort of person Ron Weasley is
going to be in book six, especially now that he's on the other side of
his bad patch of adolescence.

> (10) Do Hermione's parents know about all the danger Harry keeps 
> putting her in?  And, if they do, what do they think about it?

Hermione's parents aren't terribly interesting, according to JKR. I
have the feeling that they tend to leave their daughter to her own
devices. They probably have no idea of how much trouble she gets into,
and I doubt Hermione tells them either.

> (11) I don't understand the significance of the scene with Luna 
> saying that lost things will return and her easing Harry's pain a 
> little.  I can't believe it means that Sirius is going to return.

No. Sirius is dead and not coming back, according to JKR. As for the
rest of it, I think it was more her comment that they were just over
on the other side that eased his feelings.

> (12) Harry is angry at the loss of Sirius, disappointed with DD,
and 
> depressed about the murder in the prophecy — HBP ain't going to
be no 
> light comedy.

No, it won't be. I expect that the relationship between Harry and
Dumbledore is going to be at an all time low in book six.

"mfterman"