The Missing Tapestry... (was..He was taking too much for granted)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 161470

--- "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
> 
> Carol comments:
> ... I think he probably knew (and had reported to 
> Dumbledore) that he was using the RoR; he had found out
> what he could (virtually nothing) from Crabbe and Goyle 
> by putting them in detention; Draco was not cooperating 
>and would only become more hostile if he realized that
> Snape was following him. ...heavily edited....

bboyminn:

Sorry, I'm off on a completely new subject now.

We have discussed the differences between portraits and
pictures in the past. In short, my theory is that pictures
are like actors in commercials, they are very 
superficially draw and have extremely exaggerated 
personalities because in the few seconds of a commercial,
you have to be able to recognise them immediately, but 
again absolutely no substance.

Portraits on the other hand are like actors in a 
biographical movie or stage play. They can very much 
capture the /subjects/ personality and character traits
and indeed portray the person to great depth and with 
great believability, yet ultimately when probed at depth,
the character portrayal breaks down. The actor can only 
know just so much, and magical portraits have limits to
their knowledge and abilities.

I'm very much reminded of Hal Holbrook portrayal of Mark 
Twain in his one man show. He captures Mark Twain so
completely. He knows his history in detail, but 
ultimately there are things he can't know and questions
he can't answer.

The reason I am even talking about all this is Carol and
others were discussing what Snape and Dumbledore are able
to know and find out with regard to Draco and, this is
important, the Room of Requirements.

People wonder how Dumbledore can be so all-knowing, yet 
we forget that Dumbledore had hundreds of spies 
strategically located around the castle and even in the
wizard world at large. The spies are of course the many
magical portraits. There is no movement or action inside
the castle that is not observed by one or more portraits,
who if they think it is important, or if Dumbledore has 
requested the information, will certainly report relevant
information to Dumbledore. 

The brain flash I had as I read Carol's post was that it
is a Tapestry that is outside the Room of Requirements,
and upon that revelation, I couldn't help wonder if that
was intentional, and whether Tapestries are 
semi-intelligent and as realized as a portrait, or if they
are caricature like photographs? 

Why, do I wonder, and why would it be significant for a
Tapestry to be outside the Room of Requirements? If the
characters in the Tapestry had no substance and have no
portrait-like autonomy, but are simply doomed to play out
the same role over and over again, as do the trolls in 
the Tapestry outside the Room of Requirements, then they
could never act as spys for Dumbledore, and consequently
Dumbledore, and by extension Snape, could never know what
was going on outside the Room of Requirements.

Unlike photographs and much like portraits, Tapestries 
are artistic renderings. That could implie an intelligence
similar to portraits. Yet, all our depictions of 
Tapestries show limited interaction. We see them react to
people waking by, but we never see them /interact/. They
are always playing out their Tapestry roles. 

The tapestry outside the room of requirements is of a 
wizard trying to teach ballet to trolls, and the characters
in the tapestry do not seem to ever be outside the context 
of that event. Yes, they may pause are react to passers-by,
but again, we never see them inter-act. This leads me to 
conclude that tapestries are without substance, and there
fore can not act as Dumbledore's spies. Having reached 
this conclusion, I further conclude that JKR intentionally
put a tapestry outside the Room of Requirement so that
their could be no observation of the comings and goings of
that room.

I have no idea how or why that is significant, it was just
a thought that came to me as I read Carol's post.

Remember, you heard it here first.

Steve/bboyminn