DH - unanswered (and irritating) questions

[npod4291]

No: HPFGUIDX 174275

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ciraarana" <ciraarana at ...>
wrote:
> The following questions are from the list I made after the first
> reading of DH. If anybody can answer them, I'd be grateful. (I
> excluded most of the unanswerable questions, like What happened to
> the Dursleys?)
>
> Q: Who is the one who, according to Rowling, performs magic quite
> late in life?

Nate:
In the webchat she did earlier this week, she said that she changed
her mind about that and decided to not have anyone do that.

ciraarana:
> Q: Did the Sorting Hat burn completely? What or who is Sorting now?

Nate:
Well, I would say that it didn't burn completely, as Harry tells his
son that the Sorting Hat WILL take his choice in to consideration,
inferring that it is still doing the sorting.

ciraarana:
> Q: Why didn't Snape know about the Horcurxes? He's a Dark wizard.
> Voldemort is boasting about his near immortality. Snape is a clever
> man. Why didn't he know??

Nate:
What makes you say that he didn't know?  Just because he wasn't
actively pursuing them doesn't necessarily mean that he didn't know
about them.

ciraarana:
> Q: Where is Snape's portrait?? He was Headmaster of Hogwarts. We
> saw how their portraits pop up after their death. And I'm sure
> Harry would have noticed Snape's portrait. So, where is it??

Nate:
Again, in the webchat that Rowling had earlier this week, she says
that he doesn't have one.  Her reasoning was that Snape had
technically left his post as Headmaster before he died (when he flew
away) and thus wouldn't have a portrait.  However, she did say that
Harry would try and get him one.

ciraarana:
> Q: Snape wasn't yet teaching at Hogwarts when he approached
> Dumbledore with the plea to keep Lily safe (otherwise they wouldn't
> have met at the hilltop). So, when did that interview take place?
> and why did it take Voldemort so long to find the Potters? They
> only went into hiding a week before they were murdered.

Nate:
Where did you read that it was a week?  I took it to be much longer
than that.  After all, the prediction speaks of a someone that WILL
BE BORN that has the power to vanquish the dark lord; therefore,
Snape will have told Voldemort about the prophecy more than a year
before murder.  As soon as Harry was born (still more than a year
before James and Lill die) Voldy would think that Harry is his
threat, prompting Snape to see Dumbledore.

ciraarana:
> Q: Snape approached Voldemort with the plea to not kill Lily? And
> Voldemort agreed? He agreed to not kill a "Mudblood"?? (And he did
> agree, didn't he, because he gave Lily the choice to step away.)
> Looking at Voldemort's policy ... Are we supposed to accept that?

Nate:
Admittedly, this was a little suspect to me as well.  That being
said, Voldemort obviously doesn't care too much about the request,
as he kills her anyway when he could have easiler stunned / moved /
cursed around her.

ciraarana:
> Q: The Polyjuice Potion. It only lasts for an hour. That was
> important in GoF. And in this book it's never even once mentioned!
> And some of the adventures took longer than an hour. Is this a new
> version of Polyjuice? Why aren't we told so?

Nate:
Agreed, this was strange.  I only have two possible answers.
1.) We aren't ever told for sure that it was longer than hour (I
don't think), though some of them seem unlikely to be that short,
mainly trying to get the locket.
2.) At one point, something is mentioned about taking a large amount
of potion, maybe taking more than one does has a longer effect?

ciraarana:
> Q: The prophesy business. What a mess. Dumbledore's and Trelawney's
> accounts clashed – if what Dumbledore said was true about the
> evening of the Prophesy, there was no way Trelawney could have
> known the eavesdropper was Snape. But she knew. And Snape still
> only reported the first part. How does that all fit??

Nate:
What I think happened, was that Snape was listening at the door, and
half way through the prophecy, is caught by the barman, who turns
out to be Aberforth, and therefore can't listen anymore.  Albus and
Sybll then come out after the whole prophecy (which couldn't have
been more than 15 seconds) and find Alberforth scolding Snape for
eavesdropping on his brother.  This is just what I picture, but I
think it seems likely.

ciraarana:
> Q: Harry peering in on Voldemort. Excuse me, but Voldemort is the
> one who is in control of the connection. During HBP, he kept it
> shut. And now, suddenly, Harry can creep in again? Without
> Voldemort noticing? <snip> And Voldemort didn't even once use the
> connection to try something like he did with Sirius? He never used
> it to look in on Harry and see where the boy was? <snip>

Nate:
Remember, the only reason he knew about the connection in OotP was
because Harry knew about Mr. Weasley, meaning he didn't feel Harry
entering his mind, but knew because of the knowledge Harry gained
from it.  In that same webchat with Rowling, she said that LV was
still implementing Occlumency, but was losing control.  Remember,
Dumbledore (I think its him at least) tells Harry that the bond
between he and LV becomes stronger the longer it's there,
a "parasitic" growth is what it's called I believe.  Because of this,
I think that the bond had become so strong that no amount of
Occlumency could have prevented it when Voldemort felt strong
emotions.  He never used it back because I don't know that he was
aware of it, and because it was already seen that going into Harry
caused Voldy great pain.

ciraarana:
> Q: The Trace. Rubbish. Excuse me, but it is. I mean, in CoS Harry
> is accused of having used the Hover Charm. The Ministry didn't know
> it wasn't him. Somewhere, I think at the end of HBP, Dumbledore
> even told Harry that the Ministry can only detect that magic is
> performed, but not by whom. And now we are introduced to the Trace,
> which allows the Ministry to tell exactly who performed which
> spell?? No. Doesn't make sense. Or is it a new ministry policy and
> I simply missed that bit?

Nate:
I intrepreted the Trace differently.  I didn't think that it showed
Ministry exactly who could perform the spell.  I think that what
Harry was experiencing in CoS was finally given a name.  In DH, when
the worried that the Trace might still be on Harry, he tells Ron and
Hermione that it's no good if he can't use magic, and they can't use
magic around him, showing that the Trace is no different than it was
described before, that is simply showing when there is magic
performed around someone with it on them.

ciraarana:
> Q: If Expelliarmus changes the wand's allegiance 
 then nobody from
> the DA is still using their own wand. No wizard or witch who has
> ever been taught that spell at Hogwarts would be using their own
> wand (although considering the DADA teacher problem 
) But wouldn't
> Harry have won Voldemort's wand in the graveyard scene in GoF?

Nate:
Ollivander says that they are subtle laws governing wand allegiance,
so I don't think that disarming automatically and definitely changes
a wands allegiance.  "The wand chooses the wizard."  This to me
almost sounds as if the wand can "decide" to change its allegiance
if someone is disarmed.  I think that the reason the Elder Wand was
switched to Harry was because it was "aware" that he was the only
one worthy and capable of becoming the Master of Death, and
therefore was trying to join him.


Nate