CHAPDISC: DH20, Xenophilius Lovegood

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182892

houyhnhnm wrote:
<snip summary>
> 
> Chapter 20 Questions
> 
> 1.  Is Hermione's intransigence toward Ron justifiable?  Why is she
so unforgiving?

Carol responds:
I'm not sure that it's justifiable, but it's understandable, and at
least this time, she's not attacing him with conjured birds. She was
deeply hurt by what seemed to be his desertion (i don't think that she
realizes what the Horcrux was doing to Ron), and she and Harry have
been through an ordeal together that makes Ron's adventures with the
Snatchers (and his loneliness) seem trivial. She has the high moral
ground here, and I think she has to deal with her righteous
indignation before she can forgive him. She doesn't witness the silver
doe or Ron's rescue of Harry or his destruction of the Horcrux (Harry
has carefully concealed the details from her), so she doesn't share
the common bond of that experience or, IMO, understand the extent of
Ron's heroism. But also, intransigence, or at any rate, obstinacy and
a general unwillingness to forgive, is a Hermioneish trait. We've seen
her take revenge on several people (including Ron, with the birds),
and she forgave him in HBP only because he nearly died from poison. So
even though I understand how she suffered when Ron was gone, I think
that she's only hurting herself with her refusal to forgive. At least,
she eventually comes around thanks to Ron's siding with her (i don't
think I'd label his reasons as "meretricious," but not scrupulously
honest, true!)
> 
> 2.  We finally get an explanation for the sudden appearance of DEs
in Tottenham Court Road-the Taboo.  Was it satisfying?  Did it feel
contrived that H and H continued to use the euphemism after Ron's
defection (saving themselves from the DEs even if they didn't know 
about the Taboo).  Could there have been a Taboo on the name in VWI?

Carol responds:
I can understand Hermione's returning to You-Know-who after the
encounter with the snake and the narrow escape from Voldemort himself,
but it does seem contrived for Harry to say it. (Does he actually do
so? I just remember Ron saying that they've both stopped saying the
name.) As an explanation for why the DEs showed up so quickly in
Tottenham Court Road, it works perfectly. And it certainly provides
the only sensible explanation for why people were and are so afraid of
Voldemort's name. There's no indication in the books themselves that
there was a jinx in VW1, but it makes more sense than a widespread
speak-of-the-devil superstition.
> 
> 3.  Harry quickly shoots down Ron's hope that DD may still be 
watching over them and as quickly shoots down Ron's excuse of young
Dumbledore's behavior.  Is this meant to show Harry's disenchantment
with DD or illustrate his growing maturity?

Carol responds:
I think that he's already had experience with denial regarding
Sirius's death (for which there was no body). He saw DD die, and he
experienced denial as he ran toward Snape, thinking that somehow he
could bring DD back if only he brought the two of them together, but
then he saw the body and attended the funeral, so DD's death became
real to him much more quickly than Sirius's did. Also, of course, he's
feeling resentful, almost cheated or betrayed, because of DD's
apparent lack of helpful information. Ron, in contrast, has just found
the Deluminator an invaluable gift; he has been led back to his
friends, and he's just destroyed a Horcrux thanks to the Sword of
Gryffindor and the silver doe. The only cloud on *his* horizon is
Hermione's moodiness, and he's prepared to tolerate that cheerfully
(especially since he knows that he partially deserves it and she'll
get over it). Anything seems possible in Ron's optimistic frame of
mind, even Dumbledore offering help from beyond the grave. (And in a
way he is, via the portrait and Snape though they can't know it.)
> 
> 4.  Does Harry's emphatic rejection of youth as an excuse for 
behavior hark back to a lingering dissatisfaction with Sirius and
Lupin's excuse for his father?

Carol responds:
Interesting insight! I'll bet that it does. Lupin and Sirius say that
James was just fifteen (actually he was sixteen) and Harry angrily
responds, "I'm fifteen!" And here his response is similar: "Our age!"
(I doubt that he would have accepted Narcissa's "He's just sixteen!"
for Draco's attitude and conduct the previous year, either.) I wonder
whether the excuses he made in sixth year for the Half-Blood Prince,
who turned out to be the eavesdropper and "murderer" Snape, have
anything to do with this intolerance for this unwillingness to excuse
folly in any form on the grounds of youth?
> 
> 5.  Harry tries out his new wand on spiders.  Why spiders again?

Carol:
To get Ron's reaction? Of course, they also recall Crouch!Moody in GoF
illustrating the Unforgiveables on spiders. Maybe JKR suffers from
arachnophobia? <g>
> 
> 6.  There has been a good deal of argument over the theme of
insiders and outsiders in HP.  Those who are enmeshed in the "good"
side never seen to have to question their place in the world; those
who are born into "bad" side, either accept or rebel. Where do the
Lovegoods fit in to this scheme?

Carol:
I don't want to oversimplify since simply being a Gryffindor doesn't
put Romilda Vane or Cormac McLaggen on Harry's side (or even, in
Cormac's case, on his Quidditch team). And whatever may be the case
with her father, whose love for his daughter is stronger than his
opposition to Voldemort, Luna is indisputably on the good side, the
first Ravenclaw to declare loyalty to Harry and belief in his story
and Dumbledore's. (Cedric Diggory was also indisputably a good guy,
without ever having to make any declaration of loyalty to Harry or
DD.) Xeno Lovegood is chiefly notable for his eccentricity (his
"dapper" appearance at the wedding was relative to his unkempt
appearance at home--Auntie Muriel compared his yellow robes to an
omelet). He seems really to consider belief in the unbelievable to be
a kind of virtue. Luna accepts his beliefs unquestioningly, but she
also accepts Harry's story before her father prints it in the
Quibbler, a sign that she's starting to think on her own. I think that
Luna represents intuition and eccentric genius (I certainly never
expected her to be a gifted painter). She doesn't accept the "good"
side because she's rebelling against anything or because she's come to
some reasoned conclusion. She just seems to know intuitively that
Harry is speaking the truth in OoP, and she also considers Harry and
his friends to be her friends when she's never had friends before.
touching, at least to me. And Xenophilius--lover of the strange--loves
his daughter most of all.
> 
> 7.  Why does Ron not know where to find the Lovegoods' house when he
has grown up in the same neighborhood?

Carol:
It's not quite the same neighborhood. The Weasleys' view is blocked
not only by their hedge and orchard but by, IIRC, at least one row of
hills. However, Ron rightly expects to know it when he sees it because
it will stand out from everything else. Also, of course, the Weasley
kids never went to school in Ottery St. Catchpole. I doubt that Luna
did, either. So chances are that their paths didn't cross very often.
(Mr. Weasley mentions in passing that the Lovegoods couldn't get
tickets to the QWC; that's our first hint that the families have any
contact at all with each other.)
> 
> 8.  Did the physical description of the house strike you in any 
particular way? Is the fact that it looks like a black rook
significant? (Black is the side the Trio took in "Through the
Trapdoor" in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Hermione 
replaced the rook, in fact.)

Carol responds:
Interesting that she wouldn't catch Ron's rook reference, then! I just
thought that it was a nod to Ron's chess-playing skills, which are of
no use whatever in the Horcrux hunt. What popped into my mind was the
 black chimney from the disused mill that stands like an ominous
warning finger over the town that Snape lives in (Spinner's End is, of
course, the name of the street, not the town).
> 
> 9.  Xenophilia, literally love of the stranger, is the Greek word
for hospitality.  Was Xenophilius Lovegood's markedly inhospitable 
behavior intentionally ironic?  Is he a lover of strangers or merely 
a lover of the strange?

Carol:
Definitely a lover of the strange, as the shape of the house, the
supposed Crumple-Horned Snorkack horn, and his absurd idea of Rowena
Ravenclaw's diadem all demonstrate. 
> 
> 10. The Lovegoods are the only Ravenclaw family into whose home we
are admitted.  Do they typify Ravenclaw?

Carol:
I seriously doubt it seince even the Ravenclaws consider Luna Loony
and she doesn't have any friends in that House. The other Ravenclaws
that we meet, including Cho and her friend Marietta, Padma Patil,
Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Roger Davies, and Terry Boot, all
seem much more normal. Only a few of them seem exceptionally
intelligent and noe seems at all eccentric. (They do seem, for the
most part, interested in doing well on their OWLs, however.)
> 
> 11. The odd-looking contraption on the bust of Rowena Ravenclaw
turns out to be a counterfeit Lost Diadem, but that is not revealed
until a later chapter.  What did you think it was when you first read
about it?

Carol:
I immediately thought that the real diadem was the tiara in the RoR,
which I had suspected since HBP was the Ravenclaw Horcrux. (There's a
later reference to it in "Shell Cottage," as well, in connection with
the goblin-made tiara, but naturally, Harry doesn't catch it.)
> 
> 11. What did you think of the non-appearance of Luna?

Carol:
At first, I thought that it was perfectly logical for Luna to be
gathering Gulping Plimpies for soup. But when she didn't return and
Xenophilius kept glancing out the window, I thought that something
suspicious was happening.
> 
> 12. Any question you want to add.

Carol responds:
I wondered who the "delightful young wizard" who sold Xeno the
supposed Crumple-Horned Snorkack horn was. At first, I thought that he
must have gone to school with Luna (he could be as much as five years
older, with only one year of overlap at Hogwarts, rather than being in
her year or Harry's), but then I realized that anyone who had read the
Quibbler would know about Xeno's obsession with Crumple-Horned
Snorkacks. the wizard *could* just be an unscrupulous young
businessman wanting to take advantage of Xeno's gullibility, but I
think it must have been a Death Eater or other supporter of
Voldermort. The similarity to Quirrell selling Hagrid the dragon's egg
is just too marked to ignore, and an Erumpent horn is so dangerous
that the young man must have wanted Xeno dead. Or he could have been
under the Imperius Curse, doing the bidding of someone (voldemort or a
DE) whowanted Xeno silenced permanently. I doubt that it was Draco or
anyone young enough to still be in school, which also lets out Theo
Nott (who I hope isn't a DE in any case), and though I wouldn't put it
past Macnair, he's not all that young (about forty, I think) and it's
more than a stretch to call him "delightful." Thoughts as to the
identity of this young wizard and whether he was a DE or Imperiused,
anyone? Might he have been a Ravenclaw Death Eater? Or is he just a
plot device not worth exploring?

Carol, thanking hounynnhymn--er, houyhnhnm--I had to resort to cutting
and pasting to get it right!--for her interesting summary and
enjoyable questions