And in the end...SS/PS

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164689

Celia wrote:

<snip>

> I have been focusing my attentions on PS/SS for the last week or 
> two, and have compiled these items that I believe (and I know many 
> of you believe) may be essential to the finale. <snip>

Carol responds:

Thanks very much for starting this thread. I've been thinking of
compiling my own list of unanswered questions, starting with things
like how the address on the letters to Harry magically changed and how
there could be so many. Did McGonagall send out every owl in Hogwarts
with a letter to Harry? (Owls can find the recipient of a letter
without knowing the address, as we learn in GoF, so maybe the changed
address is just an unexplained inconsistency.)

<snip>
 
> 3.	"Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die." (Hagrid, 
> pg. 57) Hmm, awfully close to horcruxes during the very first 
> discussion of Voldy! This statement is so close to what we finally 
> learn to be true 6 books later, I wonder
is this just the writing of 
> a woman who was unsure any more books in the series would be 
> published? Or does Hagrid know more than he lets on? Or is it common 
> knowledge that VM is less than human or changed? Seems like a very 
> accurate statement from Hagrid at this point. I'm keeping my eye on 
> Hagrid. <snip>

Carol responds:
I agree that Hagrid knows something important, but I think it relates
to Snape. As for his words about Voldemort's appearance, he must have
known, somehow, what Voldemort looked like before Godric's Hollow,
snake-faced and all that. He might even have seen him hanging out at
the Hog's Head (one of Hagrid's favorite places, apparently) with his
DE pals the night before the DADA interview. (Granted, LV wasn't
snake-faced yet but his features were blurred and his eyes were
already red. Physically, at least, he was becoming visibly less human.
 I doubt that Hagrid suspected Horcruxes, but I'll bet that DD did.
And if Grindelwald made a single Horcrux, as I suspect, he would know
that one Horcrux was insufficient to dehumanize a wizard to the degree
that Riddle!Voldemort was already dehumanized.) 

One point that may be important here: Hagrid was one of the few people
besides Dumbledore who knew from the beginning who Voldemort was and
had been. (I'm not sure about McGonagall; Snape, of course, was too
young to know the pre-Horcrux Voldemort.) Another question I have: Did
Hagrid see the scattered remnants of Voldemort alongside the Potters'
bodies? Sirius Black says that he saw their bodies and the ruined
house; he doesn't mention Voldemort. If Voldie's body was blown to
(recognizable) bits, why would anyone (except Dumbledore and maybe
Snape) suspect that he wasn't dead? And if it was completely
vaporized, how did they know he was the murderer and/or that he hadn't
just run away?

> 5.	Ollivander's eyes, his creepy glassy eyes really stuck out 
> to me as I was reading today. "Wide, pale eyes, shining like moons

> Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy

> Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes." (pgs. 82-83) 
> I am of the belief that Ollivander is not dead, but captive or fled 
> to Voldemort, and will be important in DH. This description of him 
> is far more sinister than I remember, and reads to me as someone 
> hiding things- similar to Snape's glittering eyes. Will Ollivander 
> be able to alter VM's wand to operate successfully against Harry? 
> What else might a sinister Ollivander do to alter the possible final 
> outcome of the books? Where is he?

Carol responds:
As I said some time ago in another post

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/162252

I see Ollivander's silvery eyes as significant but not sinister, and
their resemblance to Luna's is intriguing:

" . . . Luna's eyes are not within the normal range of eye colors, and
their resemblance to Ollivander's is striking. Not only are the eyes
silvery, but neither Ollivander or Luna seems to blink, at least not
as often as "normal people," as the narrator puts it (reflecting
Harry's pov). <snip>

"I think Ollivander [like Snape, who doesn't blink when he's
performing Legilimency} is . . . a Legilimens. Maybe Luna, who seems
to be chiefly characterized by her eccentricity and seemingly naive
faith in the improbable, is, too."

Certainly, Ollivander is powerfully magical (Harry can sense the magic
as he stands in the shop, feeling his skin prickle in the presence of
all those wands). Just the ability to create a wand must require great
skill, and to have created hundreds or thousands or them, each one
unique, deliberately geared to, say, Charm work or Transfiguration and
otherwise somehow individually suited to a particular wizard, with
varying degrees of power, is nothing short of astounding. And he's
brilliant as well, remembering every wand he ever made and who it was
sold to. He's clearly an associate of Dumbledore's since DD donated
two of Fawkes's feathers to him and he has informed Dumbledore of the
purchasers' identities. I think he's part of DD's network of spies,
but where he is now, I can't guess. I don't think he's making a new
wand for Voldie, who's not (IMO) about to give up the precious,
powerful yew-and-phoenix-feather wand that has done so many "great but
terrible" things (What does Ollivander mean by that? Does he know
about the Horcruxes? AK and other unforgiveables qualify as terrible
but not great) just because Harry has its mate. He can find other ways
of getting around the Priori Incantatem effect (like disarming Harry
before murdering him--no more pseudo-civilized duels for LV!)
> 
> 6.	Is Quidditch included in the book just for fun, house 
> rivalry, and reader interest? Is there anything about Quidditch in 
> this first book in particular that adds to the overall mystery and 
> fight with VM? Oh, Quidditch


Carol:
Gag. Quidditch. My least favorite part of the books next to SPEW--and
Umbridge's inhuman(e) detentions. Why Quidditch? Well, it gives Harry
a chance to see that he's naturally good at something (flying) and to
*earn* some celebrity, at least at Hogwarts, in contrast to the
unearned celebrity of having survived an AK at the age of fifteen
months. The position of Seeker may have symbolic significance (funny
that he can see that Golden Snitch so much more clearly than he can
see people, maybe because he doesn't need to interpret its motives).
It serves as a plot device to get him nearly killed in several books
and have his arm bones dissolved in a dazzling display of ineptitude
by Gilderoy Lockhart. The loss of his Nimbus 2000 helps to set up the
encounter with the Whomping Willow (already introduced in CS) later in
PoA and provides Sirius Black with the opportunity of giving Harry a
Fireblot (never mind how an escaped convict accessed his bank vault
using a cat). It provides an opportunity to illustrate Cedric
Diggory's sportsmanship (in contrast to Oliver Wood and other
fanatics) before we meet him properly in GoF. It provides an
opportunity to highlight Ron's insecurities in contrast with his
abilities (unfortunately reiterated in HBP when "Weasley Is Our King"
ought to have established once and for all that he was an excellent
Keeper). The commentating illustrates the personalities of some minor
characters (Lee Jordan, Zacharias Smith, and Luna Lovegood) as well as
McGonagall's as overseer (or whatever)--and in Luna's case, it
provides some much-needed humor.IMO, Qidditch is primarily a plot
device and I'll be glad to see the end of it.
> 
> 7.	Alright, a lovely Snape moment that becomes more beautiful 
> with our wizened HBP eyes: " Snape and Filch were inside, alone. 
Snape was holding his robe above his knees. <snip> There is no reason,
really, to be furious with Harry here, within the context of the
story- all Harry has seen is that his leg is injured. Is it truly that
he is thrown back in time to his "worst memory" by having a Potter see
his bare legs? Or in the big picture, where does Snape's fury come
from? <snip>

Carol:
I think he's angry with Harry for not minding his own business and he
doesn't want him asking questions about the leg or anything else. I
don't think it has anything to do with James--and everything to do
with Fluffy and the off-limits corridor, where he does not want Harry
or his friends (or any student) to be. Of course, I could be wrong,
but I think his angry face is just one of those "clues" that Harry
misinterprets as "evidence" that Snape is after the stone.

> 10.	I was thinking about the recent thread about Snape being 
> fixated the past, or being past- oriented when reading the Mirror of 
> Erised chapter again. While Harry is able to break free of the hold 
> his past might have on him in the mirror, in some ways Snape cannot 
> break away from the past. It seems Snape's life is very much 
> dictated by fixation on the past (marauders in particular), and that 
> DD's remark, "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live," 
> might apply to Snape, except it would be "dwell on the past." Of 
> course, it also speaks volumes to what Harry failed to learn in time 
> for OotP (dreams, Harry! geez
)

Carol:
I've already responded to Snape's supposed orientation toward his past
(which applies to Sirius Black and Lupin as well), but I just wanted
to mention in passing another of Harry's dreams (nothing to do with
SS?PS). It's interesting how quickly he forgets the details of the
Frank Bryce dream (which he considers mentioning to both Sirius Black
and Ron and Hermione and decides not to do both times). And the
discussion of Bertha Jorkins at the picnic lunch doesn't even jog his
memory. If only he had remembered it and told somebody, it's likely
that the QWC plan could have been nipped in the bud. But then the book
would have lost its plot. (Sorry to stray from SS/PS, but I'm
rereading GoF and Harry's hesitation to speak up when the opportunity
arises struck me yet again.)

Carol, thanking Celia for her thought-provoking post