OOP Chapter 6-8 post DH look

[Bex]

No: HPFGUIDX 182817

OOTP:
> "Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-
> blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically 
> royal... my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them... that's 
> him."
> *******
> *******
> *******
> "From what I found out after he died  and tried to back out. Well, 
> you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a 
> lifetime of service or death" - p.111-112.
> 
Alla:
<snip>
> And it looked like Sirius bothered to find out, not just somebody 
> informed him about Regulus' death. If he made inquiries, I take it 
> to mean that he cared about his brother, sigh.
> 
> Although this is one of the questions that I still want to know, who 
> told this story to him, about how Regulus died that is.

Bex:
Well, Regulus died before Sirius was thrown into Azkaban, but after
Sirius had left the house. Perhaps he heard word through other members
of the family? I see this quote as Sirius heard Regulus had joined the
DE's, then found out he died, and filled in the blanks himself - I
don't think he got any details. Methinks Sirius is superimposing his
impressions of Regulus as a child on the events to get to this assumption.


Alla:
> This chapter also introduces the Tapestry. Were you surprised to 
> find out that all pure blood families were interrelated?


Bex:
Not a bit. The mentality of "pure-blood" that we were seeing from CoS
and on kept hinting about - to keep the blopod pure, the pure-bloods
had to intermarry.

I was surprised to see how closely related they were - Sirius being
first cousins with Narcissa and Bellatrix gave me a cold shudder.


OOTP: 
> "I don't like being back here," he said, staring across the drawing 
> room. "I never thought I'd be stuck in this house again" - p.114
> 
Alla:
> Sigh.

Bex:
Agreed. He was certainly tortured enough being forced to hide - why
force him to hide *there*? I suppose Albus was simply trying to
displace the fewest number of people in the house with the largest
number of enchantments, and #12 is right convenient to Kings Cross (20
minutes on foot). But couldn't they have found *somewhere* for poor
Snuffles?

OOTP:
> "Will it be Aurors who catch them?"
> "Oh no, this is too trivial for aurors, it'll be ordinary Magical 
> law Enforcement Patrol - ah, Harry this is Perkins" - p.135
Alla:
> So, what are cases that are good for Aurors and which ones are being 
> kicked to those guys?
> 
> High profile cases only? Do those guys even do anything fighting 
> related?

Bex:
Well, Aurors are probably involved in the more dangerous cases, where
someone is intending to do serious harm. Willy Widdershins is just
having a lark, not trying to really cause harm. In legal terms, I
think the magical law enforcement dept is called in for misdemeanors
(graffiti, window-smashing)- Aurors would be brought in for felonies
(stealing cars, arson).

Alla: 
> Are they allowed to use any curses at all? I wonder

Bex:
Possibly certain restraining spells and basic defense charms - in the
above examples, MLE would be packing the equivalent of nightsticks and
possibly tasers in a bad part of town - they would still be allowed to
use the "big guns" in a life or death situation (where their life is
at stake), but the department never expects them to walk in on a
situation where they'd be needed.

Alla:
> Chapter 8 introduces Umbridge dear. What were your first reaction to 
> her? I mean, she is not very pleasant, but did you foresee that she 
> will be such a problem?

Bex:
Ugh. I knew from JK's detailed description of her and the amount of
attention paid to her that she'd be important. I expected Harry to
have to answer to her as his MoM Probation officer or something similar.

OOTP:
> "We have no record of any witch or wizard living in Little Whinging 
> other than Harry Potter," said Madam Bones at once. "That situation 
> had always been closely monitored, given... given past events" - p.143
> 
> Alla:
> 
> They monitor where every wizard lives?????? Or they just monitor 
> every wizard who lives near Harry Potter?
>
Bex:
Probably not. The MoM most likely has a record of all the wizarding
communities, but for the most part, since OWLs are so smart, they
don't need to *monitor* everyone's whereabouts. Little Whinging,
however, is an exception due the *one* certain wizard who resides there.

What surprised me is that there is no record of Figgy in the area.
Clearly shows what Fudge thinks of Squibs. Seems like if the person
had even a REMOTE chance of doing something magical with a wand* and
they lived near Harry Potter, the MoM would want to keep a close eye
on them. The Ministry obviously thinks that there is no chance a Squib
could ever do magic.


Bex
*my mind was not is a very PG rated place after writing that line -
sorry ;)