Book Covers

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166861

Dungrollin wrote:
<snip> I'm rather taken with that little dragon on the helmet in the 
foreground. I'm not optimistic that it can tell us anything about the
owner of the loot though.

Carol responds:
No, but the proliferation of rubies can. As for the dragon, Draco
dormiens nunquam titillandus?

AmanitaMuscaria wrote:
> I reckon it's Gringotts, and it's Kreachur threatening Harry, or
victorious over him, holding Gryffindor's sword. Perhaps he's just
captured it for Voldy? Ron & Hermione are being thrown into the vault
through some elfish special power.

Carol responds:
I seriously doubt this interpretation. the Sword of Gryffindor used to
intimidate and control Gryffindors? The protections on the castle
wouldn't let that happen, and besides, a house-elf couldn't capture
and control his master. Hate him or not, want him dead or not, he has
to obey him. I think it has to be Dobby, acting as sword bearer to
Harry. (It would be suicidal to assign that honor to Kreacher.)

If it's Gringotts, the hand and forehead probably belong to a goblin,
but if so, why is the opening round rather than arched, and why would
Harry entrust the Sword of Gryffindor to a goblin? I think it's a
secret chamber at Hogwarts and almost certainly Gryffindor's given the
rubies and armor. (Yes, I know--the armor doesn't fit the era, but
neither does the castle itself, filled with suits of armor and
containing what passes for modern plumbing. And not even ghosts would
have worn Elizabethan ruffs and Jacobean plumed hats in 1492.) JKR
can't do math, and that includes historical eras, apparently. Either
that or she's taken as much poetic license with history as with
folklore and mythology.

AmanitaMuscaria wrote:
> The armour - there's a helmet and body armour with dragon or gryffin
on, and a silver shield as well as all the gold stuff - is the rest of
Gryffindor's outfit - except Dumbledore said something about the 
> sword being the only relic of Gryffindor, didn't he? <snip>
> snip

Carol:
I agree with this interpretation, but reluctantly point out that a
griffon would have an eagle's front feet and a lion's back feet, so
the helmet creature must be some sort of dragon with a griffinish or
hippogriffish beak. Dumbledore says that the sword is the only *known*
relic of GG, suggesting that there may be others he (and Voldemort)
didn't know about.

Talisman wrote:
> > > My call is that Harry is summoning something that LV is trying 
just as hard to  keep away.  We see the point in time where LV
realizes that Harry is prevailing
 

Carol:
Yes, that's how it looks to me, too. Both of them are looking at
something outside the arena (using Harry's own gladiator analogy, but
also, it looks rather like the Coliseum), Harry with an expectant and
serene expression, Voldemort with terror or horror. He seems to be
shielding himself whereas Harry looks like he's trying to catch
something. (John Granger suggests rather facetiously that they're
watching as Severus Snape reveals his true colors.
http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/ I'm not a Granger fan, but I was
hoping that he would edify me regarding the alchemical symbol with the
triangle and circle. No luck. I like the Sevvy suggestion, though. ;-))

Dungrollin:
> > 
> > Could be, could be. My immediate thought, given the fact that
Harry doesn't look desperate but rather warily confident, was that his
seeker snitch-catching skills might come in handy. Rather than a 
wandless accio, I wonder whether something is being thrown to him 
from behind the curtains - we can't see how high they go.

Carol:
His wand, thrown by Snape? (I certainly don't think it's a wandless
Accio. LV would be better at that sort of thing than Harry. Why are
they wandless, anyway?)
> > 
Dungrollin:
> > It could be the veil. Old tattered black cloth can look orange in
an orange light, which is what we've got here. Though given the sky,
it looks to me like it's set outside, but that could just be for 
atmosphere. 

Carol:
I wonder whether many of us, including me, are seeing the orange
curtains as the Veil (GrandPre's artistic license, you know--there was
no curtain in SS/PS, but she drew Quirrell sitting behind one. We
should have known he wasn't Snape because the robe isn't black!)
because that's where we expect the final confrontation to take place.
However, the veil is described as "a tattered black curtain or veil"
(OoP Am. ed. 773) and the curtains *are* rather tattered at the
bottom, so maybe GrandPre forgot a few key details like the color of
the "curtain" and the singular form of the noun. Also, the shadowy
figures (which the designer has said are people, not tombstones) do
look like the shades of the dead. 

OTOH, the room with the Veil has tiered seats (which I don't see in
this picture though the suggestion is there), but if we're looking in
at Harry and Voldie behind the Veil, we wouldn't be seeing them unless
what's behind the Veil (where Luna expects to see her mother again, as
I read her words) is just a mirror image of the Veil room in the
Ministry. But that room is rectangular, not round. The floor is
described as a "sunken pit," with the veiled archway sitting on a dais
in the middle and tiered seats all around (773). (It sounds to me as
if it was once used as an execution chamber or for some sort of
religious ritual involving sacrifice, but, IIRC, JKR seems to have
vetoed these ideas: it's just used by the Unspeakables to study death,
which does not explain the rows of tiered seats like those in the
courtroom.) 

Everything in the *circular* room with the doors (not to be confused
with the rectangular Death room) is black, including the walls and
ceiling (770). I had pictured the Death room as being black, too, and
dungeonlike because it resembles the courtroom in the GoF Pensieve
scenes, but maybe that's my imagination. But, certainly the Death room
has a stone ceiling and this arena or amphitheater is open to the sky.

Why *curtains if they're not beyond the Veil? But why an arena with
shadowy spectators if they are? What are they looking at that would
make Harry hopeful and expectant, willing to take his eyes off his
archenemy, and Voldemort afraid? Much as I'd like to think that it's
Snape, it seems much more likely to be Fawkes.

Dungrollin:
Could Voldy have hidden one of his horcruxes beyond the veil? If the
object hadn't been opened/"killed", it might remain intact and still
work as a horcrux.

Carol:
how could Voldie have gotten there? He couldn't get into the MoM
(except, somehow, when he possessed Nagini and on the night of the
battle) to retrieve the Prophecy. And why hide it there, in the Death
room, when death is what he fears? I can see *Harry* tossing Horcruxes
in there, but not Voldie. I'm pretty sure, though, from the appearance
of it, that the locket Horcrux around his neck is "dead." (For reasons
already given, I don't think it's the fake one: It's too big, it would
serve no purpose to wear it, and it's too late in the game.)
> > 
Dungrollin:
> > On the other hand, Harry could be in the process of throwing
Voldy's horcruxes through, and the fear you can just about discern
(through the evil glare) in Voldy's eyes is him realising too late
what Harry is doing...

Carol:
I think Harry is reaching for or expecting or waiting to catch
something, not throwing something. Also, they appear to be on the
wrong side of the Veil (curtains) for him to be throwing something
inside it. And I can't imagine Voldie, who's a legilimens and who
could torture people just through his own will as an eleven-year-old
who didn't know hie was a wizard, just letting Harry throw his
Horcruxes anywhere. I'm sure they're all already destroyed at this point.

AmanitaMuscaria:
> I think it's the room of the Veil - it's described as a 'theatre' -
sorry, I'm in work without my books - with tiered seating - <snip>

Carol:
An amphitheater, not a theater, and it's rectangular, not square. Nor
is it open to the sky like the arena or whatever it is in the picture.

AmanitaMuscaria:
> My take on the picture is the rubble (wood and stone) is the ceiling
of the room having been destroyed by Voldie and Harry's battle; there
are people on the tiered seating, watching the battle, but the people
aren't necessarily alive... Harry and Voldie are battling wandless ...
something has happened off-screen. 

Carol:
But there's no wood in the DoM. Everything is made of stone. And the
amphitheater or arena or whatever it is doesn't look as if it ever had
a ceiling. It seems to be open to the sky. I agree that the shadowy
people aren't necessarily alive. Can you imagine either the Order
members or the Death Eaters just sitting there watching a duel to the
death (wandless, yet) between the Dark Lord and the Chosen One? These
spectators are, IMO, powerless to affect the action--almost certainly
shadows of the dead, which takes us back to the Veil room, which
doesn't fit what we see in the picture.

So, either Mary GrandPre doesn't read carefully and takes liberties
with the books (beyond making right-handed wizards left-handed), or
what we're seeing is not what we think we're seeing. Much as I want
Harry to go behind the Veil (the hero's journey to the Underworld), I
don't think that's what's happening here.

Carol, hoping that she attributed the quoted posts correctly since the
previous poster is quoting at least two other people