Who needs Harry? (was: GoF CH 27-29 Post DH look/ Snape and Harry redux)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182321


> Magpie:
>  <snip> Most Wizards in Britain pretty much went to Hogwarts and had
access to this library, actually, which means a lot of people with an
interest in Dark Magic could have read about them (before Dumbledore 
hid all the books on the subject). 

Carol:
Most wizards in Britain had access to this *library,* yes, but not
necessarily to the Restricted Section and not to those books.
Dumbledore hid the books while Tom was still at school, fifty years
before Harry entered Hogwarts and roughly thirty-nine years before
Godric's Hollow (and roughly a dozen years before Tom's altered
appearance gave DD any cause to suspect that he might actually be
making Horcruxes). Even when the books were accessible, they were only
for the use of advanced DADA students (with permission from a staff
member) and perhaps the staff members themselves. Students don't just
walk into the Restricted Section and choose a book. They need
permission even to enter. 

The old DADA teacher, who might perhaps be acquainted with the
subject, retired when Tom left and was probably dead by the time of
Godric's Hollow. We *know* that the future DEs weren't checking out
books on Horcruxes from the Restricted Section. they had no idea that
Voldemort was making Horcruxes (though they certainly knew from the
alterations in his appearance that he was experimenting with Dark
Magic). the boys we see with Voldemort don't seem the scholarly type,
anyway. Two of them are risking detention by turning in their essays
late. Most students in the HP books, regardless of their House or
their year, don't study any harder than they have to; Hermione, who's
always consulting a book, is an anomaly. So was Severus Snape, who
would probably have read those books had they been available to him.
As it was, he had no idea that they existed.

Perhaps one student in a generation read those books, and *no one
under seventy* read them till Hermione sneaked them out of the library.

Remember Ron's joke about all the people who have read "Hogwarts: a
History" ("Just you, then")? Krum hangs around the library to watch
Hermione, other students use the regular section to write their
essays, but when do we ever see a student or even a faculty member
doing research in the Restricted Section? The only time it's ever used
in the books is by Hermione with permission and Harry without.

Seriously, your statement that "a lot of people with an interest in
the Dark Arts probably read those books" is an exaggeration even with
regard to the over-seventies who attended Hogwarts with Tom Riddle and
earlier (many of whom are dead by the time of Godric's Hollow, in any
case). If it weren't, the future DEs would have read about Horcruxes
along with Tom Riddle (who probably kept the books to himself to keep
even his "friends" from reading them). And with regard to people under
seventy, it's simply false. *The books weren't available.* Dumbledore
hid them. consequently, Lupin, Snape, the Potters, the Weasleys, and
any other Order members of their generation (or even some thirty years
older) has no idea that Horcruxes exist. (Aberforth is old enough to
know about them, but I doubt that he ever set foot in even the regular
student portion of the library. And Mrs. Figg may be old enough, but
she's a Squib.)

Perhaps you're thinking that "a lot of wizards" read about Horcruxes
after finishing Hogwarts, but why would they? They don't have
circulating libraries, they don't go to college, and what studying
they do after Hogwarts (if any) relates to such specialized fields as
Healing and being an Auroring (pardon the neologism; I wanted parallel
structure). If the Unspeakables study Horcruxes in their research on
death, they're not telling anyone. Such books wouldn't be available in
Diagon Alley, and respectable Witches and Wizards avoid Knockturn
Alley (which might or might not sell such books; we aren't shown any
books of any sort in Borgin and Burkes.) And Wizards other than Snape,
with his book-lined walls (and probably Dumbledore) don't spend much
time reading that I can see. (If McGonagall reads anything other than
student essays or the Daily Prophet, it's probably "Transfiguration
Today." *She's* the right age, BTW, but she has no clue about the
Horcruxes.)

If older Wizards interested in the Dark Arts (or fighting them) knew
about Horcruxes, surely either Mad-Eye Moody or Mr. Crouch would know
about them (assuming that they're over seventy). But, clearly, they
don't. Dumbledore and Slughorn are the only ones who know about them,
and neither of them is sharing that information.

The topic is not taught or even mentioned at Hogwarts. It's taboo. How
are students supposed to learn about Horcruxes when the teachers
pretend that they don't exist? And if people somehow knew about them
anyway and talked about them in conversation (as an exciting forbidden
topic spoken about in whispers) or if information on Horcruxes could
easily be encountered in books outside Hogwarts, Snape, of all people
would know about them and have at least one book on the topic in his
book-lined house at Spinner's End. But, evidently, the concept is so
horrible that, as Hermione says, even books full of the most gruesome
spells and potions don't even mention Horcruxes. The only reference
she finds is one that says that the writer isn't going to deal with
the topic. It stands to reason, then, that books that *do* discuss
Horcruxes are very rare--and written by people who were adults when
Tom Riddle attended Hogwarts and unlikely still to be writing books in
Harry's time even if they're still alive.

Carol, who thinks that Horcruxes are no more a part of the average
Wizard's world than necrophilia is part of yours and mine