Chapter 15/Trace on "Voldemort"/Goblins/Caribbean/YuleBallPartner

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 181992

Dana summarized Chapter 15 in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181844>:

<< With the aid of the extendable ears, they discover that a party
settled at the nearby riverbank consists of Griphook and Gornuk the
Goblins, Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas and Dirk. (snip) As soon as this band
of fugitives moves out of extendable earshot >>

I kept yelling at them to make contact with these allies!

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181859>:

<< part of the problem can be traced to Dumbledore's teaching Harry
not to fear Voldemort's name. I think, and I'm probably alone in this
thought, that the fear had a basis, not in superstition like "Speak of
the devil, and he'll appear," but in speaking Voldemort's name leading
to discovery by DEs or LV himself. Even if there was no jinx last time
(and I suspect there was), anyone who spoke Voldemort's name would
instantly reveal himself to any DE within earshot as an enemy. >>

If there was a Trace on saying "Voldemort" last time, and the members
of the Order of the Phoenix were all taught by Dumbledore to say
"Voldemort", that might account for so many of them being killed by
the bad guys. Deaths due to following Dumbledore's guidance. Do you
think it's possible that there was a Trace on saying "Voldemort" and
Dumbledore didn't know it? Despite having spies and little silver
gadgets that appear to be magic detectors?

<< Goblins in general are, apparently, clever, malicious, and ugly. I
can't imagine an ancestor of Flitwick's marrying one >>

Maybe there was no marriage involved. Maybe a beautiful witch agreed
to sleep with four ugly Goblins in exchange for a very valuable piece
of Goblin-made jewelry. Wouldn't Goblins find humans as ugly as humans
find Goblins, and therefore not be so interested in sleeping with humans?

Zanooda wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181861>:

<< Isn't the Caribbean too far away from England? Can a hippogriff fly
such a long distance? >>

Buckbeak wouldn't have had to fly all the way there, only to someplace
where Sirius and he could board a ship.

Alla  wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/181981>:

<< Harry doubted it very much if any of the girls who had asked to be
his partner so far would have wanted to go to the ball with him if he
hadn't been a school champion. Then he wondered if this would bother
him if Cho asked him" - p.389.

Not that I dislike Harry being honest with himself here, quite the
contrary, but I now wonder if he let Hermione's words get to him too
much. I mean, is it really true that nobody would have asked him had
he not been one of the champions? But I guess Harry experienced
enough school turning on him to feel sceptical. >>

The quote doesn't say that nobody would have asked him, it says that
none of the girls who had asked him so far would have asked him. I
think that's true -- as far as I can tell, none of them even know him,
but they know that he's a Triwizard Champion and he and his partner
will open the Ball. 

If Cho had asked him to be her partner at the Ball, it wouldn't have
been just because he was a Triwizard Champion. Because OoP showed that
she fancied him and she pursued him when his only claim to fame was
teaching the Defense Association.