CHAPDISC: HBP5, An Excess of Phlegm

[Miles]

No: HPFGUIDX 144139

Juli wrote:
>   CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS:

Miles: Thank you for your great summary and the interesting questions
concerning the 5th chapter.

Juli wrote these questions:
>   1)     We don't see many people who call Dumbledore by his first
> name. Minerva calls him Albus (PS/SS Ch 1), maybe Mad-Eye Moody calls
> him Albus, perhaps also Fudge, but Molly? That's a first. How close
> do you think the Members of the Order actually are? Molly calling him
> Albus makes me think that all of them see each other as family, not
> only as colleagues. What do you think?

Miles:
Much more interesting is, that Dumbledore seems to address all people by
their first names, but not all dare (?) to do it with him. I have the
impression, that this is less a problem of Dumbledore objecting to this, but
that he is in a very special position, superior to everyone he meets - part
of his loneliness.
I would consider, that he has to *ask* people to address him the same way he
does. And he may have asked the members of the Order to do so. And yes,
maybe this is comforting him like having a family.
Molly is in several ways the emotional center of the Order, whereas
Dumbledore is the spiritual and intellectual leader - he should be aware of
Molly's role.

>   3)     Arthur's greatest ambition is to discover how planes stay on
> the air. Don't wizards and witches learn any physics at all? Don't
> they -Arthur & Co- know that there are muggle books that can easily
> explain the basic concepts of aerodynamics?

Miles:
Just a running gag, not more. Sure, Arthur is described as an intelligent
man, who spent years of his professional career in contact with the muggle
world - and he knows nearly nothing about it. At this point, I simply grin,
not digging deeper.

>   4)     What's with Fleur's comment of Gabrielle? (The one when she
> mentions Gabrielle has been talking non stop about Harry). Is it a
> sign of what we may see in book 7, a possible relationship between
> her and Harry? Maybe Gabrielle as a young Ginny?

Miles:
Gabrielle was described as 8 years old back in the GoF IIRC, so she is ten
or eleven then und no match for Harry.

>   7)     Why wasn't there a memorial, funeral, or wake for Sirius? I
> know there wasn't a body to bury, but still, those who loved him
> needed to say good-bye: they needed closure.

Miles:
Maybe there was, but Harry, isolated at the Dursley's, had no chance to get
there. But this is just speculation.

>   8)     Do you think that Molly's clock with all its hands pointing
> towards mortal peril is a sign of what may happen in book 7? Will we
> be seeing more than one Weasley death? Who do you think it will be?
> When reading this chapter I got flash-backs to Molly's bogart in
> Grimmauld Place. Will all her worst fears come true?

Miles:
The clock was mentioned before, I don't see, that it indicates things to
come in book 7. But apart from this, I'm sure we well see major losses for
Harry, and the Weasley's are his real family. We will see at least one of
them die, if you ask me for a guess.

>   9)     Why do you think Percy still won't come back home? He knows
> that Dumbledore & Co where telling the truth all along, is it because
> "people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than
> being right"? Is it just a pride thing?

Miles:
It is pride, and it is career thinking. In  some ways, Percy is the logical
result of Molly's education. She wants all her kids going to the Ministry,
being successful. She pushes her husband into a career he obviously does not
like too much - if he had a choice, he would still deal with muggle
artefacts. Percy is the perfect son of Molly's. He keeps his head down, bows
to the Minister and is up to a great career. Unfortunately, Molly is now in
some critical distance to the Ministry - and so is Percy. Speaking of karmic
justice...

>   10)                        Didn't Bill ask for his parents'
> permission before he took Fleur to live with them? Or are the
> Weasleys so polite that they keep their feeling about Fleur bottled
> up to protect Bill?

Miles:
Quite sure he did. And there was no way for Molly to say "no" to this. It
would have been rude to him and Fleur, and Molly already lost one son.

Miles