baby TMR/Dark Arts DD/Prefect Ron/Erised DD/Gryff Vernon/Fanciable Ron/Angry@

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 151312

Jen Reese wrote in 
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151113>:

<< I often wonder why JKR presented boy Riddle the way she did, as not
only unloved but unlovable from the start. Even as a baby he didn't
ask for or likely receive much attention because he was 'odd'. Merope
abandoning him may have started the process of Tom being unloved, but
it didn't end there. The fault for being unloved as a baby cannot lie
with a baby[.] >>

1) It does happen in real life; I believe psychologists have names for
syndromes that cause babies to act unlovable.

2) Some listie once proposed that JKR presented Tom Riddle's evilness
as a given because Riddle/Voldemort is not a character in this story,
merely part of the background for the characters' stories. So his
personality development doesn't need to be explained anymore than the
personality development of a storm that kills several characters in a
non-fiction book.

Tonks_op wrote in 
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151149>:

<< I also think that DD was probably, at some point in his life,
tempted just as Tom Riddle was tempted, as Snape was tempted, as Draco
was tempted, and as Harry was, to use the Dark Arts.  'Oh, just once',
you can hear a voice saying.. 'no one will know...  You will be
honored above all others...'  And DD turned away. >>

In my opinion, by the time we met Dumbledore, he was an old man, who
had had lots of time to make mistakes and learn from them to behave
differently from then on. I imagine that as a school boy, he was more
like James than like Luna (Luna whom Harry, at least, should recognize
as 'a young Dumbledore -- he says that same kind of mad thing'), and
he may have used Dark Arts before rejecting them.

Sandy October's Child wrote in 
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151154>:

<< By the end of OoP we are made to understand why Harry wasn't made
Prefect, but I still have to ask what was JKR's intention by making
Ron one? >>

I thought Rowling / Dumbledore making Harry the Prefect was too 
predictable and therefore didn't expect it. I had expected Rowling /
Dumbledore to make Neville the Prefect, as a way of forcing him to
live up to his potential. I was so glad that she / he chose Ron -- one
act of kindness for poor Ron, letting him get his mother's praise and
a decent broomstick so he could try out for the Quidditch team,
instead of the usual pattern where Ron doesn't get as good marks as
Hermione and doesn't star in sport or heroic adventures like Harry so
his mum is always criticising him for not being as good as his
brothers. That always made me feel so sorry for Ron.

Pippin wrote in 
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151165>:

<< But what makes it obvious that we're supposed to take Harry's line?
[that Dumbledore knew what was going on and let Harry have his chance
[to rescue the Stone], and this is a good thing,] >>

That the obstacles were so easy that three first-years could get
through them. Many listies have said it seems unlikely that the
greatest wizard alive and five more professors's best efforts to
block Voldemort are obstacles that *children* can get through. And
that DD made sure that Harry found out in advance how the Mirror of
Erised works.

Najwa wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151224>:

<< I see no Gryffindor or Ravenclaw qualities in [Uncle Vernon] 
at all >>

Oh, isn't he the same kind of Gryffindor as Cormac MacLaggen?

Joe Goodwin wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151308>:

<< There are planty of people who wonder what Hermione sees in Ron.
(snip) But what we do know is that both Lavender, who I believe is
JKR's "pretty popular girl archtype" and Hermione "The smart
overachiever" were both very interested in Ron. >>

I think Lavender went from five years of viewing Ron as a nuisance to
doting on him because she spent the whole summer holiday dwelling on
that glorious save he made that won the QUidditch Cup for Gryffindor.

Alla wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151309>:

<< Since I am not buying at all that Dumbledore was angry at Sirius
(Angry for what? For loving Harry too much? >>

*MAYBE* Dumbledore was angry at Sirius for getting himself killed
(despite all DD's attempts to protect him) and thus breaking Harry's
heart.

IIRC flashes of anger at the dead beloved, anger for having died thus
deserted the bereaved, are considered to be a normal part of the
grieving process.