Half-Blood Prince

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 183859

> > Carol: 
> > Stll, though, I find it annoying to have to search for
> > explanations as to how a character could have known something. 
> > It's like Ron knowing that Draco had a Hand of Glory (which, 
> > canonically, he didn't because Lucius refused to by it for him)
>  <snip>
>
> Pippin:
> <snip>
> But where a logical explanation can be devised even if not 
> intuited, why not leave it to the reader? 
> 
> Some of us enjoy that kind of thing, and rather than taking
> us out of the story, it leads us deeper in.

Mike:
Right, Pippin, like me. :D And I don't find the Hand of Glory 
incident that hard to track. 

Harry started to tell Ron and Hermione about the Malfoys after he got 
out of Knockturn Alley, but was interrupted by Mr. Weasley. But then 
they all separated and HRH go wandering around Diagon Alley together 
for an hour. You find it hard to imagine Ron piping up with, "What 
were you going to say about the Malfoys?" Then Harry relates the 
story about the Hand of Glory and they all get a good laugh over the 
way Lucius indirectly upbraids Draco for lack of ambition.

I know I had to make that up, but there is a lot of stuff that goes 
on off page that you have to take for granted. As for Draco actually 
acquiring the Hand, we saw that on page. Draco bought something in 
B&Bs in "Draco's Detour" that he took with him under his robes. We 
just didn't know what it was at that time. Turns out it was the Hand.


> > Carol: 
> > or trying to account for Sirius Black's letter being at 12 GP.

Mike:
Well, Sirius had is own place after Hogwarts, courtesy of his Uncle 
Whatshisname. After he was sent to prison, what would you suppose 
happened to his stuff in his place? Do you suppose the Ministry would 
let his flat be turned over to the Muggles without someone going 
through there to take all the magical or magically related stuff out 
of there? And the letter and moving photograph would certainly 
qualify. 

I doubt that the Ministry would simply destroy all of Sirius's 
possessions, so what would they do with them? Send them to his next 
of kin seems the logical choice, to me. What part of this seems 
illogical or inconsistent? Like I said, not everything can make the 
page, some stuff has to be assumed.