CHAPDISC: DH11, The Bribe

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 180524

Thanks for a great summary and stimulating questions, Pippin!

> QUESTIONS:
> 1. It seems the DE's learned where the house must be and that it 
belongs to Harry, but not 
> that it was once headquarters of the Order. Did you think this was 
a clue to Snape's true 
> loyalties? Or did you think the tongue-tying curse was adequate to 
keep Snape from 
> talking? 

a_svirn:
I don't understand this tongue-tying thing at all, frankly. There 
wasn't any need for Snape to *talk* in order to reveal the secret. 
After all, Dumbledore revealed it to Harry in writing. 

> 
> 2. Does Harry's reaction to Scrimgeour's death hint at  his 
reaction to learning the truth 
> about Snape?

a_svirn:
What reaction? He was briefly *gratified* as your very rightly termed 
it, and then moved onto the next subject. 

> 3. The DE's were  able to force their way past the protections put 
on the other safe houses. 
> Did you expect this and did it make you feel any differently about 
the value of the blood 
> protection at Privet Drive? 

a_svirn:
No, I didn't, and no, it didn't. The whole thing looks a bit sloppy 
to me. And even more so, after we learn later on about the 
possibility of Fidelius self-protection. Surely the Tonkses could 
have protected themselves the way the Weasleys did. 

> 4. Does the  general mistrust in the wizarding community and the 
surveillance and torture 
> of Order members go far enough to explain the lack of  resistance 
to Voldemort's coup?

a_svirn:
The similar things were known to happen in real life. And it is 
always *because* of surveillance and general persecution Resistance 
groups usually emerge. 

> 5. Harry accuses Lupin both of feeling a bit of a daredevil and of 
being a coward. What is  
> Rowling saying about the relationship between recklessness and true 
bravery? 

a_svirn:
Nothing. Harry knows and we know that Lupin is neither a daredevil, 
no a coward. 

> 6. What do you think of Lupin's reasons for wanting to leave his 
family? Given earlier
> hints in canon that Lupin is an occlumens, is his apparent lack of 
feeling for Tonks
> only a pretense, or is he truly indifferent?

a_svirn:
I think his anguish was quite understandable. I am not sure about 
hints of his being an occlumens in canon, all I can recall, is the 
hints of his being legillimens. But either way it wouldn't have 
mattered, since Harry (through whose eyes we see him) is neither, and 
can only see what's on the surface. Though I, for one, didn't get the 
feeling that Lupin was "indifferent". He was so far from indifferent 
that he seemed a hairbreadth from a nervous breakdown.  
 
> 8. On a lighter note, I think this is at least the seventh time 
that canon refers to Umbridge
> as a hag. Could she actually be one? 

a_svirn:
Of course, she is!