CHAPDISC: DH20, Xenophilius Lovegood

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 182919


> 
> 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?

Potioncat:
Yes, I think so, and it's just as valid. Harry goes through his youth 
without giving in to bad influences...unless you count the HBP. <eg>

I think it's something that JKR has mixed emotions about. James and 
Albus, and even Harry are allowed to be excused for youthful bad 
behavior and poor decisions. Pansy isn't.

> 
> 5.  Harry tries out his new wand on spiders.  Why spiders again?

Potioncat:
Sometimes a bug is just a bug. Like the wasp buzzing in the OWLs.

At the very first reading, I was convinced the spider was Snape!


> 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?

Potioncat:
That theme only applies to Gryffindors and Slytherins.

But here's an example of how LV is able to make someone work for him. 
We know that Lovegood has been brave and defiant in the past. He 
doesn't lack for courage or integrity and in no way supports LV's 
program. But he does have a daughter who is in danger.


> 
> 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.)

Potioncat:
Some of us had been expecting another chess-symbolic event in DH. I 
thought this foreshaddowing it. But I don't know that it played out. 
Of course, from another standpoint, it's a lot like the lightening 
struck tower, with a betrayal and a change of direction.
> 

> 
> 10. The Lovegoods are the only Ravenclaw family into whose home we 
> are admitted.  Do they typify Ravenclaw?

Potioncat:
No more than the Weasleys are typical of Gryffindor; the Blacks of 
Slytherin or Hepzibah of Hufflepuff.
 
> 11. What did you think of the non-appearance of Luna?

Potioncat:
It grew more and more ominous. I knew something was wrong.


Thanks for a great summary and discussion.