Hand of Glory

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 183909

 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.

Carol:
I suppose. It would at least explain why the shrunken head was
mentioned. But we shouldn't have to go to such lengths to figure out
how Ron knew about the Hand of Glory that Lucius didn't buy, Harry
didn't mention, and Ron didn't see.

Pippin: 
> 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. 

Carol:
True, but it would keep us from being sidetracked and annoyed by
inconsistencies.

Pippin:
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. <snip>

Carol:
He got the DEs in through the Vanishing Cabinet that it took him the
whole year to fix. He could have had a DE bring the Hand with him from
Borgin and Burke's, which would make perfect sense, but that's not
consistent with Ron's knowing about it. (BTW, he also sneaked in the
Peruvian Darkness Powder, but I suppose that, being a Weasley product,
it somehow had enchantments on it to escape detection. After all, a
love potion qualifies as "dark" and would have been detected if not
disguised as perfume, so the powder probably would be detected, too.
We're left with Filch not searching the students' trunks, which seems
out of character, not to mention risky if they're worried about Dark
artifacts being smuggled into the school. then again, it would be a
lot of work unless he enlisted the help of the House-Elves, so maybe
he didn't.

BTW, you mentioned the precautions being a joke. What, besides the
disguised love potions, got into the school that wasn't supposed to be
there? Filch was onto the cursed necklace right away (though he had to
be warned not to touch it), and the poisoned mead wasn't caught
because it was brought in by a teacher, not a student.


> > 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.
<snip>

Carol:
I'll try to make it clearer. Sure, the experiment works for Draco. But
how is he supposed to "show off his acquisition," which allows *him*
to see in the dark, when no one else can see because they're not
holding the hand? He's not going to be stupid enough to hand it ovetr
to someone else to try out because then *he* wouldn't be able to see
and it could be taken from him by a sufficiently wily Slytherin. (and
I still say that Mrs. Norris would have scented trouble as well.)

I *think* that Draco must have sneaked it into Hogwarts in his trunk
during HBP (at a time when he was being secretive and would *not* have
wanted word to get around, especially to Snape or Dumbledore, that he
had any such artifact. And, IMO only, there's no way that Ron would
have known about it. JKR just simply forgot that Lucius had not bought
it for Draco back in CoS and that Ron had not mentioned it to Harry.

Carol, who suspects that JKR doesn't realize that readers would have
to go to such lengths to find plausible explanations for the things
she misrembered
>