Portraits again/ Lucius's talents

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 184014

> Catlady:
> 
> Okay, we agree about the Headmaster portraits. 
> 
> I'm not ready to give up my idea that the Ministry building, St.
> Mungo's, old family homes, and other wizarding institutions 
> (including a monastery, which could have avoided being confiscated 
> by Henry VIII by use of Muggle-repelling spells) generate the 
> portraits by magic same as Hogwarts does.

Mike:
I'll give you St. Mungo's. I wasn't intending to exclude other 
prominant wizarding institutions. I was just using Hogwarts and their 
Headmaster portraits as an example. The monastary, possibly, but 
would such an august institution be charmed to produce a portrait of 
their friars engaging in such frivolity?

The Ministry, sorry, I can't see that one. First off, what would the 
charm be aimed at? If every Minister of Magic, the place would be 
overflowing with portraits. I daresay there are many more MoMs than 
there are Headmasters/mistresses of Hogwarts. And what about other 
prominent witches or wizards that served long careers there but never 
rose to become the MoM? 

Also, I would think the politics of that place would prevent any  
charm from ever being allowed to be cast. There had to have been more 
than a few really bad Ministers for anyone to want all of them to be 
thusly enshrined. 

For my money, I think the various departments would be allowed to 
choose who would decorate their departmental walls. I suppose that 
the choice of which MoMs would be put to a vote of the Wizengamut or 
some such, as to which MoM had acquited himself in an honor-worthy 
fashion. These votes probably taking place every ten to twenty years. 
Of course, a less confident former MoM, :cough, Fudge, cough:, could 
go ahead and buy himself a frame and ask if his portrait could be 
hung in the janitor's closet. ;-)



> Catlady:
> 
> Still your theory, that all the other paintings have to have
> their frame and canvas prepared for the specific person while
> that person is still alive, would explain why no portrait of
> James and Lily Potter appeared in the ancient Potter family
> home, and why the drunken monks got a group portrait instead
> of individual portraits.

Mike:
The problem with having any ancient/old family homes capable of being 
likewise charmed is who decides? IOW, if we're only talking about 
setting up a charm, well, any family could choose to do that, 
couldn't they? Where would you draw the line? And would the less 
affluent have accepted that line? I think not.




> Catlady:
> 
> I think Lucius, before Azkaban, was even more ambitious/deluded
> than that. To me, he thought that with his charm, good looks,
> and high breeding, he could make Lord Voldemort dote on him as
> much (altho' not as blatantly) as Hepzibah Smith had doted on
> Tom Riddle, and thus Voldemort, ruler of wizarding Britain, would
> give any order that dear Lucius had flatteringly suggested to him,
> so that Lucius would be the REAL ruler and LV only the figurehead.
> I think LV knew perfectly well that that was Lucius's plan.

Mike:
Interesting. I've always wondered how Lucius would have gotten 
involved with Voldemort in the first place. Stock answers don't do
it for me with him. He seems more capable of independent thought than 
your standard type I DE. I wanted him to be the reluctant follower, 
obsequisce in his praise to LV's face, but with the hint that he 
always thought himself much better than this half crazed half-blood.

After playing such a prominent part in the earlier books, did he even 
get one line of dialogue in the last two? I think he might have given 
a couple one word or one-line answers in DH, CH1. Hell, we wouldn't 
have accepted them as posts on this list if that was all the further 
he advanced the discussion. ;-)

Mike