Imperalisk/ChapterDiscussion/UnbreakableVow/Fiendfyre/UmDementbridge/Herodoto

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 182448

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182332>:

<< Only if the Dark Wizard know Parseltongue, the only language that
the Basilisk understands. And since it obeys the Parselmouth, anyway,
the Imperius Curse would be unnecessary. >>

That depends on how the Imperius Curse works, and I gather we have
different ideas of that. There may be some question of whether the
Imperius Curse works on animals or whether basilisks in general are
immune to magic and can be harmed (or cured) only by Muggle means, but
I believe one could cast the Imperius Curse on a human who knows no
language but Parseltongue. He doesn't have to understand what
'Imperio' means. There are other spells, like 'Locomotor trunk', which
work on inanimate objects, which by definition don't understand the
verbal incantation.

So, when giving a command to a basilisk (or human) who is under the
Imperius Curse, does the command have to be given in a language the
Imperi-ee understand? Does it have to be spoken? Does it have to be
given in language at all? Maybe I can just make a mental image in my
mind of what I want the basilisk to do, and the magic will make the
basilisk obey my order without even being aware that I gave an order.

AKH summarised Chapter 17 in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182348>:

<<  3. "Bathilda" seems to be able to see Harry and Hermione beneath
the Invisibility Cloak. Does this mean that Nagini can see through
Cloaks? Does LV know they're there and communicates it to Nagini?
Clearly, someone is there, since the sign has risen out of the ground,
but how does LV!Nagini know where they're standing? >>

Some kinds of snakes find their prey by sensing heat rather than by
seeing. Rattlesnakes. Pit vipers. I admit that I've never understood
HOW the pits sense heat.

Potioncat wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182349>:

<< It's still interesting to me that Narcissa will ask for a magical
vow from her friend, but DD does not ask one of his enemy. >>

Yes, why didn't he? Back when I thought Dumbledore was Good, it was
reasonable to think that he would refuse to accept an Unbreakable Vow
because he was too Good to coerce a person's will or too Good to kill
a person,  

Pippin wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182382>:

<< IMO, fiendfyre summons the fiery fiends (probably Luna's heliopaths) >>

You think? For some reason, I had envisioned heliopaths as looking
like dust devils made of fire instead of dust, not as looking like
Muggle wild animals, which IIRC is how the Fiendfyre was described.
And I had imagined the fiery beasts to be manifestations of the fire,
like 'tongues of flame' darting out of even a tame campfire, rather
than as individual beings. But much that I imagine turns out to be wrong.

Wasn't Luna's theory that Fudge was raising an army of heliopaths,
concealed in a room in the Department of Mysteries? Was the Ministry
actually doing something with Fiendfyre?

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182394>:

<< I don't think that Umbridge wanted them to suck his soul; she only
wanted them to force him to cast a corporeal Patronus so that he could
be tried and expelled--and DD discredited. >>

I think she did want them to suck his soul. I don't think she planned
how she would claim afterwards that the Dementors are firmly
controlled by the Ministry.

Pippin wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/182407>:

<< "War violates the order of nature and causes parents to bury their
children "-- Herodotus. >>

Yes, but considering the infant and childhood mortality rates in
Herodotos's time, I never understand how he and his contemporaries
could think that parents burying their children wasn't the order of
nature.