DH - unanswered (and irritating) questions

[ciraarana]

No: HPFGUIDX 173199

Kia ora!

I'm new to this list, and although I've tried to read my way through
the DH posts, I gave up at one point. So, if anything that I say here
has already been said before, I humbly beg your forgiveness.

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?

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

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??

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?? 

Q: How could Dumbledore have known Draco's mission before Draco did?

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. 

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?

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. 

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?

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??

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? 
(Okay, perhaps Harry didn't always notice when Voldemort came to peek
into his mind in OotP, and perhaps now Voldemort doesn't know Harry's
there.) 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? You know, to better catch him, and
all that. I half-expected it for the first several hundred pages. It
never happened. And I can't understand why not.

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?

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?


Answers are welcome. Even if you only tell me I'm stupid and missed
something. (At least then I could stop wondering.)

Toodles,
CiraArana