A few thoughts

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 137097


> Geoff:
> While rereading HBP, some thoughts occurred to me which some of you 
> might also have had.
> 
> We are aware of JKR's habit of dropping little sentences into the 
> books which suddenly take on significance at a later date and a 
> couple of these crossed my mind - mark you, they may turn into 
> latter day "Mark Evans".
> 
> edited ...... Gurdyroot...... edited
> 
> Is this going to be significant or is it just another example of 
> Luna's dottiness?

Valky:
To me the Gurdyroot warding off Plimpies looks a little like the
Garlic warding off Vampires myth. IMHO it might just be a Vampire joke.



> 
> Geoff quotes another interesting tidbit:
> 
> '"Anyone we know - ?" asked Ron, as Hermione scanned the headlines.
> "Yes!" said Hermione, causing both Harry and Ron to gag on their 
> breakfast, "but it's all right, he's not dead - it's Mundungus, he's 
> been arrested and sent to Azkaban! Something to do with 
> impersonating an Inferius during an attmepted burglary... and 
> someone called Octavius Pepper has vanished... oh and how horrible, 
> a nine-year-old boy has been arrested for trying to kill his  
> grandparents, they think he was under the Imperius Curse..."'
> 
> (HBP "The Unknowable Room" p.428 UK edition)
> 
> Should we be speculating on who Octavius Pepper is? Just a name out 
> of the blue maybe? Not even a student at Hogwarts, like Sally-Ann 
> Perks or even another local kid such as Mark Evans...

Valky:
I don't know about Octavius, but I have wondered whether we should be
concerned about Mundungus "impersonating" Inferi in a Burgulary. Mny
of us have been holding Mung already under suspicion of coming into
contact with Horcruxes. And if R.A.B is Regulus, and the Locket at 12
Grimmauld Place was the Horcrux... Mung in Azkaban could make for an
interesting twist in Book seven. 

  
> 
> OK, over to PACT (Paranoid Association of Conspiracy Theorists).
> 
> Finally:
> 
> '"Kill me then," panted Harry who felt no fear at all but only rage 
> and contempt. "Kill me like you killed him, you coward - "
> "DON'T -" screamed Snape and his face was suddenly demented,  
> inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling 
> dog stuck in the burning house behind them, "- CALL ME COWARD!"
> And he slashed at the air; Harry felt a white-hot, whiplike  
> something hit him across the face and was slammed backwards into the  
> ground. Spots of light burst infromt of his eyes and for a moment 
> all the breath seemd to have gone from his body..'
> 
> (HBP "Flight of the Prince" p.564 UK edition)
> 
> Anyone got any ideas on this spell? I'm convinced it's 
> not "Sectumsempra" and I don't think it's the spell which Dolohov 
> threw at Hermione in OOTP.

Valky:
I agree with you Geoff, that its neither curse. Overall it seems like
a painful hex, but not dangerous. My first thought was that Snape had
"slapped" Harry, with something that had the extra effect of kicking
him in the gut at the same time hence winding him. It could be
something relatively new among Sevvies inventions, it seems to be
bitter and angry like the Sectumsempra, but also at the same time a
restrained sort of attack. Which seems to me IMO to mesh nicely with
the general changes and developments in Severus' character since his
childhood. From deadly curses and violent threats to viper(white hot)
tongue and vicious (kick in the guts) anger. I took it very much to be
a sign that Snape had tried to turn a leaf in his book for real, just
as DD believed. Of course it's also possible that he was just using a
restrained attack to preserve Harry for his master Voldemort, but I
just like the thought that the creations reveal the man in Snape.

Just something extra I noticed in this passage on my first read. 
 
"DON'T -" screamed Snape and his face was suddenly demented,  
> inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling 
> dog stuck in the burning house behind them,

Did this make anyone else think to themselves that the Dog (whom I
realise is Fang but otherwise) stuck in the building behind them was
an allusion to Sirius?  

Valky