Hand of Glory

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 183905

> 
> Carol responds:
> "Sold openly" by borgine and Burke, dealers in Dark artifacts. I
doubt that it would be sold openly in Diagon Alley.

Pippin:
Not everything B&B deals in is a dark artifact. The vanishing cabinet
isn't dark. Nor was Slytherin's locket, until TMR made a horcrux out
of it. Hepzibah deals regularly with B and B's. She was a vain and
silly witch, and a slaveowner, but does that make her dark? 

But supposing for the sake of argument, the HoG would normally
register on a dark detector...

Carol:
\ Crabbe's(?) shrunken head, another Dark artifact of the
> type sold by B and B, was confiscated by Filch, who found it with
his Dark detector.

Pippin:
Well, there you are, then. The shrunken head could've been a decoy. In
the presence of a more powerful dark artifact, an HoG might not
register, just as Riddle's magic didn't detect the presence of a
weaker wizard accompanied by the far more powerful Dumbledore.

In any case, knowing how the HoG entered the school might stop us
wondering about it, but I don't see that it would contribute much to
our understanding of the characters. Draco managed to get DE's into
the school, so it's hardly OOC that he managed to get a Hand of Glory
in as well. Nor did I think we were supposed to be that impressed with
Hogwarts precautions, considering that other contraband made its way
into the school that year. I thought it was a bit of a joke about
things like airport screening: everybody knows that they don't catch
everything. 

> Pippin: 
> > Draco could have tested the hand in ordinary darkness quite
easily, and would have had no reason not to brag about owning it
before he thought of using it as part of his plot to get DE's into the
castle. <snip>
> 
> Carol:
> He could have tested it for himself, certainly. But since it gives
> light only to the holder, no one else would have seen the
> demonstration. 

Pippin:
I'm not seeing the problem here. Draco waits till lights out in the
Slytherin dorm, gets out of bed, lights the hand, and tests to see if
anyone can see him. No one can. Experiment successful.  Draco then
shows off his acquisition in the boys bathroom, and Ron overhears.

 Ron mentions the HoG in chapter 7 of HBP, before their return to
Hogwarts, so this would have happened sometime in years 3 to 5,
probably under Umbridge's regime when the Ministry was resolutely
pretending that the students at Hogwarts were in no danger from dark
wizards at all.  

As for what Lucius would think, what he doesn't know won't hurt him.
Draco was never thrilled with Lucius's advice to keep his head down
and let the Heir of Slytherin get on with things. I'm sure Draco
thought it would be very useful for him as  a prefect to have
something like that, especially since he knew that Harry had the cloak. 

> 
> Carol:
> I have no objection to its being a bookmark. What I wonder is what
> it's doing in 12 GP when it would not have been sent there. 

Pippin:
While Sirius often acted impulsively, it's not true that he never
planned. He planned the Marauder outings and the secret-keeper switch,
which included going into hiding. Don't forget, he still had James to
help him in those days. 

If Sirius stored the book in his intended hiding place, then possibly
the Aurors never found it at all. Or, if he entrusted the possessions
he wouldn't need to someone such as Andromeda, then there's no reason
they wouldn't have remained there. Moody or some other Auror would
have scanned them for Dark evidence and not found any. 

We haven't heard of any wizarding law that allows the Ministry to
confiscate all of a Dark Wizard's belongings, IIRC. You may be
thinking of the US law that allows the government to confiscate a drug
dealers' goods, but that's not a universal practice.  Anyway, we know
that Sirius still had his Gringotts vault and enough gold to purchase
a Firebolt, and Hermione doesn't  remark about that being unusual. 

Anyway, once Sirius returned to Grimmauld Place and knew he would be
there for a while, he could have asked Lupin or someone to retrieve
his belongings for him if he didn't want to risk Dumbledore's wrath by
fetching them himself.  

 Once again, though telling us how the letter got there might stop us
from wondering about it, it wouldn't tell us much about Sirius or
Harry. And it would be OOC for Harry to wonder about it, so stopping
to explain would take us away from the story, not further into it.  

Pippin