Bellatrix, Dementors, Umbridge, Centaurs (Was: DEs in Azkaban, Bellatrix)

[lagattalucianese]

No: HPFGUIDX 146776

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "tropicwhale" 
<tropicwhale at y...> wrote:
> 
> "tropicwhale": 
> My main worry is actually Bellatrix. She is one bad nut and there 
> isn't any squirrels that will take her out. She frightens me more 
> than Voldemort. Voldie at the moment allows his followers to attack 
> people and just tortures them if they fail. Bellatrix will actually 
> just fly off the handle and start killing off innocents just 
> because. That is what scares me.
>
La Gatta Lucianese:

What I'd like to know about Bellatrix, apart from her general loose-
gunness, is what she is doing out of Azkaban. We know that she 
received a life sentence (Gof.30) for the torture of the Longbottoms 
and general bad behavior, but escaped in January of 1996 (OotP.25), 
yet she is running around loose the following June, when she has 
enough gall to participate in the battle in the Department of 
Mysteries, during an interval when Sirius Black, another escapee, is 
having to hide out in an unplottable safe house for fear of being run 
in by the authorities. She is still out and about the following late 
summer or autumn, when she and Narcissa pay a visit to Snape at 
Spinner's End (HBP.2). Is MoM really not equipped to take her on, or 
are they simply too witless and gutless to run her in, or what?

A couple of miscellaneous points:

(1) AIR, there has been some debate recently about what dementors 
were doing in Little Whinging in the late summer of 1995 (OotP.1), 
and whether they were sent by MoM or whether they had gone over to 
Voldemort by that time. In OotP.32, Umbridge says outright that it 
was she who sent them, to force Harry to perform underage magic and 
thus get himself expelled, so that MoM could discredit him and 
through him Dumbledore: 

"'*Somebody* had to act,' breathed Umbridge, as her wand came to rest 
pointing directly at Harry's forehead. 'They were all bleating about 
silencing you somehow--discrediting you--but I was the one who 
actually *did* something about it....'"

(2) Although we see plenty of centaurs, we never see any female 
centaurs AIR. Why? There must be some, since the centaurs we do see 
refer frequently to "foals". Are the females universally pacifist? Do 
they follow the ancient Amazon custom of living in separate 
communities and visiting infrequently? Or are centaurs the ultimate 
male chauvinist horses' asses, who believe that women belong 
barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen?