CHAPDISC: DH12, Magic is Might

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 180829

> CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,
> Chapter Twelve, Magic Is Might
><snip summary>
> Discussion Questions
> 
> 1. Were you surprised that the trio were apparating to Grimmauld
Place on the top outside step and why?

Carol responds:
I can't remember, to be honest. I suppose that it makes sense to
Apparate in an Invisibility Cloak and since they can't Apparate and
disapparate into/out of the house itself, the top step is the next
best place. Presumably, having the door open doesn't reveal the house
itself, which is still invisible to those who aren't in on the secret.
Not muc else to say except that I'm wondering how Lupin escaped being
seen if the DEs were already watching the house and he didn't have an
Invisibility Cloak. Maybe I'm forgetting something?
> 
> 2. Harry says if Umbridge opened the locket it would make no
difference, since she was so evil to start with; however she did wear
it awhile.  Could its influence possibly have made her even more
malevolent than in the past?

Carol responds:
It certainly didn't affect her in the same way it affected HRH,
especially Ron (making them depressed and angry). Evidently, it sensed
a kindred spirit. Possibly, it increased her self-confidence or
intensified her pro-Voldemort sympathies. I'm torn as to whether she
really believed that Voldemort wasn't back; she seems to have shifted
her allegiance from Fudge's Ministry to Voldemort's without blinking
an eye, but she was always, IMO, out for herself. Thr switch from
punishing students with a blood-letting quill for telling "lies" to
distributing pink pamphlets full of lies herself and taking pleasure
in robbing Muggle-borns of their wands seems only a matter of degree,
with a change to a leader whose ideology matches her own more closely
than Fudge did. I don't think she's more evil or more malevolent as a
result of the Horcrux. Rather, I think the new regime gave her more
scope for her cruelty and lust for power. The locket was merely an
expensive trinket which she could claim bolstered her link to the
pure-blood Selwyns. There may or may not have been a mutual attraction
between it and her, but I don't think it changed her in any
fundamental way.
> 
> 3. Did you even think before we see the tidy kitchen that Kreacher's
transformation and efforts to please would or could be so dramatic?

Carol:
Definitely not although I was pretty sure that he could have appeared
in a clean tea towel rather than a filthy rag had he been ordered to
do so. (That would have been my first order to him had I been his
master, with no choice in the matter.) I still wonder where he got
food, given that the best Hermione could manage was inadequately
transfigured moldy bread.
> 
> 4. We find out Snape is the new Headmaster at Hogwarts.  Who else
did you think might take this place?  Perhaps as Deputy Headmistress
in the past it could have been McGonagall?

Carol:

Before DH, I thought that Snape would be on the run, the WW's most
wanted man next to Voldemort, and that McGonagall would be
headmistress of Hogwarts. Needless to say, I was surprised to find
Snape as headmaster, but it wasn't quite the stunner it would have
been without the first chapter (Snape as LV's most favored lieutenant)
and the fall of the MoM. I would have loved to read more of Snape's
acceptance speech. He seems to have handled the ceremonial aspects of
the post with surprising aplomb--and, more important, he managed, with
only two unavoidable exceptions, to keep on the old, experienced (and
in some cases highly competent) anti-Voldemort staff, which ought to
have been an indication of his loyalties. Imagine the horror that
would have been Hogwarts had, say, Travers or Yaxley or Selwyn been
headmaster, bringing in DEs to teach every subject and sending the
former teachers to Azkaban. But to return to the question--Snape as
headmaster with DEs on his staff never occurred to me. Good one, JKR!
> 
> 5. Since Hermione got Phineas's picture off the wall, has she
learned how to defeat the charms that keep other pictures from being
removed or was Phineas's portrait not stuck to begin with?

Carol responds:
I'm pretty sure that Phineas's portrait wasn't stuck up there to begin
with or she could never have gotten it down. After all, a Permanent
Sticking Charm is exactly that--permanent. And I'm also pretty sure
that Dumbledore told Sirius not to take it down. It must have been one
of their methods of communication.
> 
> 6. What did you think about upon learning of the plot to infiltrate
the Ministry in search of Umbridge and the horcrux?  They discuss
timing, strategy, and logistics and express their own misgivings.
Could or should they have tried to get the horcrux in a less dangerous
and complicated manner?
> 
Carol:
Should they have done so? Certainly, if they could. Could they have
done so? i don't know. I think that the Polyjuice Potion, at least,
was necessary, but Stunning spells would have been preferable to
Puking Pastilles, IMO. What are two more bodies hidden in an unused
theater if you've already got one? But the flaw in the plan is not
figuring out what to do once they got inside.

> 7. There was concern over the painful scar Voldemort visions, about
Voldemort invading Harry's mind.  Why didn't Voldemort ever try to
invade Harry's mind?  Did the fact that Harry had a scar and that
Voldemort presumably did not have anything to do with this?

Carol:
He did try to invade Harry's mind by planting visions in it, and he
must have had some indication of how Harry was reacting or he wouldn't
have known that his vision had succeeded (or the Prophecy orb had been
destroyed). I think that if he'd known that Harry's scar was an
accidental Horcrux, he could have communicated with the soul bit as he
did with Nagini. As it is, he never understood the scar link and
consequently didn't exploit it to its fullest, especially after trying
and failing to possess Harry. And certainly, he didn't realize the
extent to which Harry had access to *his* supposedly private thoughts.
> 
> 8. Did you find anything particularly interesting about how the trio
actually physically got into the Ministry building?

Carol:
Only that they found a use for the Twins' inventions. As I said above,
the Polyjuice Potion was pretty much a given.
> 
> 9. They will have to leave Grimmauld Place after the incident.  How
did you feel about the location while they are there?  For instance,
is it a safe refuge, Harry's real home, and positively nostalgic of
former times there, or merely an expedient and sometimes unpleasant
one at that?

Carol:
Harry's "real home" is Hogwarts. 12 GP has no particularly good
memories associated with it and a lot of bad ones. Still, I was
surprised that they slept on the floor and on on beds. If they didn't
want to use the room with Phineas's portrait, why not the one where
the Twins had slept? and why wouldn't Hermione use her old room?
(Post-DH, with money and safety and a happy House-Elf, it can probably
become a happy home.)

Carol, still wondering where Kreacher got the ingredients for treacle
tarts and other goodies