Anima(l/gus) Portal /Lots of different comments on CHAPDISC / GoF /scapegoat

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 151945

Pippin wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151754>:

<< Lupin says that no Hogwarts students ever found out more about the
grounds or the village than the Marauders did. (snip) Maybe they found
a long lost pet door? >>

Not lost to the pets. As Betsy Hp wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151686>, 
<< there are any number of beasties within the castle that like to 
get out for a bit of romp on their own. Crookshanks is one familiar 
we know of, but other cat familiars probably like to get out for a
night-time hunt as well. >>

Meri wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151842>:

<< I want to know is why Gryffindor never had a reserve seeker, for
all those times that Harry ended up in hospital. >>

The only evidence that Gryffindor ever had a reserve anything before
Harry became captain is a bit of Lee Jordan's commentary in PS/SS: "a
neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year
only a reserve". It could be that PS/SS was the first year that Oliver
was captain (he was a fifth year in PS/SS) and he personally didn't
accept to have any reserves on the team, therefore either promoting or
firing all the previous year's (and previous captain's) reserves. Not
having any reserves is really stupid, but so is the kids do all their
strategizing and practising without any coach but each other.

Betsy Hp wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151847>:

<< He's an amazing flyer, and it's all his, not a hand-me-down from
Voldemort. >>

Harry always felt that his flying and Quidditch ability was the only
ability that was really his, so I always wanted him to find out that
he had gotten it from LV along with Parselmouth, just to see his
emotions about it. But that won't happen now that flying and Quidditch
are no longer important to Harry.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151849>:

<< As for other chapter titles that might be similarly misleading, 
how about "Snape Victorious," in which Snape seems to be achieving a
long-cherished ambition but is in fact being publicly acknowledged as
the latest appointee to a jinxed, or perhaps cursed, position that
ultimately leads to disaster for him and for Hogwarts? >>

I thought the title 'Snape Victorious' referred to Snape getting 
to enjoy a few minutes of verbally beating up on Harry without
interference. Thus he was victorious over 'Tonks' who wanted to
protect Harry.

Elfundeb wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151866>:

<< By the end of the chapter I was beginning to wonder if Felix
Felicis is nothing more than a placebo. (snip)  But I think Harry's
ability to extract Slughorn's Horcrux memory could fit this theory
just as well. >>

But when Harry took FF, "Why he knew that going to Hagrid's was the
right thing to do, he had no idea. It was as though the potion was
illuminating a few steps of the path at a time. (snip) It was when he
reached the bottom step that it occurred to him how very pleasant it
would be to pass the vegetable patch on his walk to Hagrid's. It was
not strictly on the way, but it seemed clear to Harry that this was a
whim on which he should act, so he di-rected his feet immediately
toward the vegetable patch," it gave him HUNCHES as well as CONFIDENCE. 

a_svirn wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151910 :

<<  Magical contracts in effect make hostages out of champions,
completely at the mercy of the hosts and the jury and pretty much
everyone else. The question is therefore WHY did Dumbledore feel it
necessary to introduce them? To include one rule that renders all the
other rules defunct? >>

I don't think Dumbledore introduced the magical contract(s). I think
use of the Goblet of Fire has involved magical contract(s) since it
was invented hundreds of years ago. If Dumbledore could have prevented
the person chosen by the Goblet from participating, it would have been
more effective than an Age Line to announce that an underage person
who was chosen by the Goblet wouldn't be allowed to participate and
their school would be without a contestant.

Tonks_op wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/151838>:

<< Does anyone know of any custom in any culture since the beginning
of time in which one person who was tried for a crime could have
someone die it his place? >>

As a child, I read that that was done in Imperial China. The point was
that people would agree to be put to death in exchange for a payment
not given until they were dead, because they valued feeding their
starving family more than their own life.