The first-years conspiracy

[lucianam73]

No: HPFGUIDX 142102

> lucianam73  wrote:  <snip> "Oh, but I don't think memories work as 
> real life. You can remember something that happened last year and 
> mix it up with something else that happened last month. I mean, 
> memories do not have dates to them.   
>  
> CH3ed (mucho snipped): 

> If I remember correctly Jo Rowling gave an interview (I 
> think it's the one on July 16th) and clarified that penseives 
> recreate the whole event of the memory as it happened (without the 
> distortions of personal interpretations or biases) and even record 
> details that one may not have noticed at the time. 

Lucianam73 wrote:

I can see I messed up in what I wrote above, I wasn't clear at all. 
What I wanted to say is this: suppose I'm Slughorn. I remember Percy 
Weasley (just joking) invading my house and demanding info about 
Horcruxes. I tell him off _ 'You'll go wrong, boy!!!!' and send him 
on his way. That happened this very year, in August. I also remember 
a nice little Slug Club meeting I had with Voldemort and his DE's, 
some 50 years ago. I mix up both memories to try and hide parts of 
one of them from dumbledore, who's knocking at my door demanding 
right now. So, it is true you do not have dates on memories. The 
whole point is Slughorn cut off parts of a certain memory and filled 
the blanks with bits of something else _either a elaborate made-up 
non-existing memory (I tend to prefer this possibility) or another 
memory. You'll end up having two completely different sorts 
of 'material' in the memory we saw in Chapter 'A Sluggish Memory'. 
Either two mutilated memories or a true memory and a fake.


CH3ed also wrote (snipped): 
> Also, what caused you to believe the first- years nicked Felix? 
> beside that they may not like the way Ron treat them? I don't 
> think they would even know what Felix is or does (different years 
> take different lessons, don't they?... maybe except for when the 
> fake Moody was showing off doing unforgivable curses).


hg wrote (snipped):

> Perhaps if there was a 
> moment in the text when we saw a first-year dash out of the 6th 
> year boys' dormitory, or a first-year quickly hiding something, or 
> even if it was pointed out that one of them saw Harry "spike" 
> Ron's pumpkin juice, I'd ride the creative wave.  Was there maybe 
> something you left out in your original post, something along 
> these lines?
> 

What leads me to suspect the first-years nicked Felix (quoting 
CH3ed) are both circumstancial and 'style wise' (dreadful! couldn't 
think of nothing better...) clues.

Circumstances are suspicious, but I don't have any evidence, of 
the 'sneaking into dorm first-year' kind. 
The biggest clue, for me, is Ron taking and failing his Apparition 
test in the very same day Harry drinks FF; of course it could be 
just a coincidence. But look at the additional little details 
concerning Ron and his Apparition: he's poor at it and it's a 
publicly open fact (Snape mocks it, Ron complains about it when the 
test day is fixed on the common room notice board); even the date of 
the test is given to us. 

The rest of the 'circumstancial evidence' is, I completely confess, 
just more little details, and none of them prove a thing, but still 
add to my suspicions. For example, there were first-years at the 
Quidditch try-outs. What if Hermione's Helping Hand isn't just Harry 
and Hermione's secret? At least McLaggen should suspect he was 
Confunded, shouldn't he.

About the first-years not knowing what FF is, I think they most 
probably do, because 'Harry Potter won it'. Harry is a celebrity 
now, and probably everything he does is gossip material. so why not 
a special prize he won from Professor Slughorn because he's such a 
Potions expert?

And about 'style wise' clues... JKR has a (disturbing) tendency to 
write a scenario in which a seemingly small mistake leads to 
unproportionately huge, calamitous consequences. It also usually 
happens to the good guys (because they should know better?): 

Little Ginny Weasley dismissed her father's advice of 'never 
trusting anything who thought for itself unless she could see where 
it kept its brains'; as a result she is possessed by demoniac Tom 
Riddle and ends up slaughtering cocks and almost killing fellow 
students (not to mention almost dying, too). 

Poor locked-up in misery Sirius Black failed to treat his odious 
house elf with 'kindness and respect', with well-known results.

Reckless Harry Potter didn't study Occlumency as hard as he was 
(repeatedly) asked to; see results above.

Ron Weasley, the boy who 'can be a bit unkind' (quote from Luna), 
fails to treat his inferiors (in magical education, I mean) with 
kindness and respect all through his sixth year. Shouldn't any red 
lights be flashing right now?

Lucianam