CHAPDISC: DH6, THE GHOUL IN PYJAMAS

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No: HPFGUIDX 178709

Alla:
> 1.	What do you think of Molly's behavior towards the Trio in
> this chapter?

Understandable, in a way, but she has to be aware of the dangers Ron and Hermione have already participated in with Harry and survived, which means that they're a lot stronger than she thinks.  I'm also
surprised that she perhaps thinks they would abandon Harry to take
care of Voldie on his own.  If so, she misjudged how much the three of them mean to each other.

> 2.	Do you think Ron truly believed that Mad Eye may not be
> dead? If not, why did he argue that?

I'm with the others who say it's just wishful thinking on Ron's part. It's hard to accept that an old pro like Mad-Eye would have been killed, while he and the others survived.

> 3.	Did Arthur's explanation to Harry about why Grimmauld place
> cannot be Order headquarters anymore strike you as consistent with
> what we knew about how the Secret Keeper charm works prior to DH?.

To be honest, I read that and just thought, "hey, whatever you say,
JKR."  Having the FC be completely consistent (or not) didn't really
enter into it.  There were other things that I thought were larger
inconsistencies, or just incidents of "why the heck did she have ****
do that?" than the FC.

> 4.	If the Diary!Horcrux was possessing Ginny does it mean that
> the Locket!Horcrux will be possessing Ron later in the book?

As others have said, he clearly wasn't actually "posessed" by it, but
I think that his splinching and his self-esteem issues made him more
vulnerable to the Horcrux than either Harry or Hermione.

> 5.	Ron and Hermione are committed to help Harry. What did you
> think of the sacrifices they are making?

Very noble.  More below:
Carol wrote:
"Ron's ghoul plan seems far-fetched, but at least it doesn't
hurt his parents, and his giving up school is no great sacrifice. I'm
sure he'd rather be with Harry on what he thinks will be a great
adventure, a chivalrous quest. I'm not altogether
certain that Ron is making any sacrifices at this point. He has no
conception of what will really be involved (or how really clueless
Harry is with regard to finding and destroying the Horcruxes)."

I don't completely agree with this.  Ron had a much clearer idea of
the terrible consequences for his family if the DEs found out that he
had gone with Harry, than what the consequences would be for him
personally, which is why he set up the ghoul.  He knew that if the DEs found out he was with Harry, his family would be tortured to get them to tell where Harry was.  This was borne out later, when the DEs find out that Ron is indeed with Harry, and it forces his whole family to go into hiding.  I do think, Carol, that you are right in saying that Ron doesn't really have a clue on how bad the Horcrux hunt could be, but then neither did Harry nor Hermione.


> 6.	What were your thoughts on Hermione's explanations of
> what "Horcrux is a complete opposite of a human being" means?
> Hermione tells Ron that it should be a comfort for him if she
> kills him with a sword and his soul will not be hurt. What did you
> think about it?

Makes total sense, and fits in with the worldview of the book.  Plus,
it's an easy explanation for both our favorite slightly-dense redheads and for kids.


> 7.	Where did you think Trio should start their hunt after the
> wedding?

12 GP was a good place to start, even if they didn't intend to go
there at first.  Hogwarts would have been a mistake, as they would've
had a hard time getting in due to all the DEs and Snape.


> 8.	Insert your question here.
>
Hermione fit so many other things into her bag, why the heck didn't
she throw in some MREs, boxes of Mac and Cheese or Clif Bars or
something?  Being Muggle-born she would have known about that stuff.
She put the tent in so she clearly had a thought that they'd be
camping.  Where did she think they were going to get food?  That leads me to another question which will be more appropriate for one of the camping chapters, but I'll throw it out there anyway: why did Hermione feel that she had to sneak into a Muggle grocery store wearing the invisibility cloak?  She's from that world, she had regular money, it wouldn't have been a huge deal for her to go shopping.  Ron could have gone as well, it's not like Muggles knew who he was or anything.  It's not like the DEs were staking out every single Muggle grocery story in Britain.

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