CHAPDISC: HBP5, An Excess of Phlegm

[kiricat4001]

No: HPFGUIDX 144194


>   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?

Marianne:
Someone else responded (sorry - forget who) that Molly may feel 
comfortable enough with DD to call him Albus in these more private 
moments.  I think that's part of it.  I also think it has to do with 
how people relate to DD.  I can't recall if Moody ever calls 
DD "Albus" and they are long-time allies.  But, Moody probably 
talked to and referred to his fellow Aurors by surname only, so 
that's what he will do with everyone, DD included. People in the 
Order who were students under Headmaster or Professor Dumbledore 
would probably still have that ingrained habit of referring to him 
by his last name. 

 I don't get a "family" feeling at all. If they all thought of each 
other as family, surely there would be no need to ask question 7 
below.

    
>   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? 

Marianne:
I'm sure they don't learn the hard sciences.  I think this is just 
another example of what is almost a running joke in the series of 
Arthur professing his fascination with all things Muggle, while at 
the same time being very clueless about the Muggle world.

Perhaps Muggle Studies should be a required course at Hogwarts. If a 
great part of wizard life and Ministry business is devoted to 
keeping wizard society secret from Muggles, surely it would make 
sense for everyone to grow up having a better understanding of how 
the Muggle world operates. I find this is one of those things about 
the books that I try not to think about too much.
   
>   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?

Marianne:
NO, PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU, JKR! Let's not make the other big group 
of Harry shippers angry by introducing Gabrielle. 

Seriously, I'd be surprised if Gabrielle plays a part in Book 7.  I 
think Gabrielle might have a bit of hero worship for Harry, since he 
rescued her during the Triwizard Tournament.

>    
>   6)     We all know Tonks is seriously depressed. Is her 
depression because she has lost a dear cousin, or because Remus 
won't marry her? Or perhaps a bit of both. What do you think?

Marianne:
Should we not simply trust Hermione's words about Tonks in this 
chapter? Hermione puts it down to survivors' guilt and says that 
Lupin has tried to talk Tonks around. You'd think that Hermione, who 
in the past has been used to give pithy assessments of other 
characters' emotional and psychological state, would catch on right 
away that Tonks was pining for Remus. 

Hermione doesn't say she's actually heard what was said in these 
conversations, so perhaps she is assuming what was discussed and 
doesn't realize that Tonks was expressing her undying love for Remus 
and he was trying to politely brush her off.
This is probably all part of the red herring trail JKR wanted to 
lead us down so that when she hooked Lupin and Tonks up at the end 
of the book, it would come as a joyous surprise.  I personally found 
it clumsy, but that's just me.
   
>   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.

Marianne:
As others have said, there could have been something that we simply 
don't know about. However, Harry also didn't know about it, if there 
was one, and he's the one who had the most right to attend something 
like that.  

Pure speculation here, but I think that Harry will go to Godric's 
Hollow to his parents' graves in Book 7, as he mentioned he would at 
the of HBP.  At that point, it will occur to him to place some sort 
of marker for Sirius near James and Lily. 

I think Harry's attitude towards Sirius is interesting in HBP.  He 
clearly dreads the idea of talking about what happened when his 
friends' conversation gets anywhere near Sirius or the events of his 
death, as is evidenced in this chapter where Harry starts shoveling 
eggs in his mouth hoping not to have to say anything. He doesn't 
really know how to share his feelings of loss, even with those 
people, like Tonks, who he thinks also might feel the same thing. 

And he resents or gets angry with people who he feels don't have any 
right to make a claim on Sirius.  He didn't like Vernon's reaction 
to the news of Sirius' death, he felt that Slughorn spoke of Sirius 
like an object, and not a person in the previous chapter.  He's 
ready to escalate his quarrel with the Malfoys at Madame Malkins' 
when Narcissa brings up Sirius' name.  And, of course, he's ready to 
take Dung's head off when he realizes Dung has been lifting items 
from 12 Grimmauld Place, even when the objects are not things that 
Sirius cared about.  With these people, Harry is almost possessive 
of Sirius' memory, as if to say that, since they do nothing to show 
honor or affection for Sirius, they have no right to even mention 
his name.

   
>   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?

Marianne, ghoulishly:
Well, I hope some of her fears come true, as JKR has said that she 
has to be ruthless to tell this story.  And, since there are so many 
Weasleys, surely the law of averages would indicate that at least 
one of them has to buy the farm. She could do in Charlie without too 
much trouble, as he has been the most minor Weasley. It could be 
handled pretty quickly in the story, whereas if any of the other 
Weasleys were to die, there would have to be more page coverage. 

Of course, a greater impact would be had if JKR kills off one of the 
others, just because we know them more.  Why not kill off Molly and 
get rid of Harry's only mother-figure?  Or one of the twins or Ron, 
thus reaching right into the heart of Harry's closest support 
network? 

I imagine some people might think that this is overkill, and that 
JKR won't keep hammering us over the head with character deaths.
But, isn't war like that? People don't stop dying at a convenient 
time. One family member might be killed or maimed, but that doesn't 
automatically mean that everyone else in the family is spared. War 
can be an interminable grind where people hear news of death and 
destruction day after day, until they're almost numb. We're not numb 
yet.
    
>   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?

Marianne:
I think it's partly pride, but also that Percy, at this point, is 
still managing to keep on his feet at the Ministry, so he might very 
well be able to salvage his self-esteem and not feel he has to make 
up with his family. Actuall, I think Percy will not be particularly 
important to the remainder of the story, unless he stumbles across a 
Horcrux.  But, he seems too far out of the important flow of the 
narrative to become any more than a minor player.
    
>    
>   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?

Marianne:
I think a bit of both.  Maybe Bill didn't ask permission so much as 
suggest that Fleur and his family spend some time together.  And of 
course his parents would agree to that. Then, since neither side put 
forth what their understanding of what "some time" meant, Bill felt 
fine with essentially moving Fleur in, and his parents have not yet 
come up with a way to tell him that she's really overstayed her 
welcome.