CHAPDISC: DH33, The Prince's Tale

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 184821

Zara:
Thank you, Carol, for the detailed summary and long list of 
discussion questions about my favorite chapter! <g>

> Carol:
> Note to everyone: Please pardon the length of this summary. The
> chapter is 28 pages long (Scholastic edition).

You mean Bloomsbury, I presume. It runs from p. 659 to p. 690 in my 
Scholastic edition, which is, counting half-pages. 32 pages long. 
That makes it (by a page) the longest chapter in the series, 
incidentally.

> Carol:
> Discussion Questions:
> 1.  Why do you think that JKR (or the narrator) refers to Snape
> as "the Prince" here and in "The Flight of the Prince" in HBP?

Zara:
In HBP, this was one of two chapters that referred to the title 
character. In the first "The Half-Blood Prince" this character was 
introduced (both as the mysterious writer of matrginal notes in 
Harry's used text, and as present day Professor Snape, taching his 
first DADA class to Harry). I think it was for symmetry, and to 
formally make knwn that the mystery of the "Prince" was being 
introduced, and then resolved.

> 2. Voldemort gives the Hogwarts staff one hour to "dispose of 
[their]
> dead with dignity" and treat the injured while he waits in the
> Forbidden Forest. Assuming that he means what he says, how do you
> think he expects them to "dispose of" the dead?

Zara:
I think he just meant "prepare for proper disposition", as indeed the 
defenders of the castle did, collecting the fallen, and laying them 
out carefully and beginning to mourn them. The next step might be a 
burial ceremony, or cremation, or what have you, but I don't think 
Voldemort was suggesting that had to be finished in an hour.

> 3.  Lupin and Tonks lie "pale and still and peaceful-looking,
> apparently asleep beneath the dark, enchanted ceiling." 

Zara:
We do not see these two in the place and time of their death, unlike 
Dumbledore. I took this description to indicate that someone found 
them, and carefully laid them on the table in a natural and dignified 
body position and closed their eyes.

> 4. Harry blurts out "Dumbledore!" and the door to the stairway
> leading to the headmaster's office opens. When and why do you think
> the password changed and who or what changed it?

Zara:
I think Snape changed it, he'd ahve the authority to. When, I am not 
clear on. I think anytime is plausible. If early, it could be passed 
off to the Carrows and other staff as a sick joke. Or maybe it was as 
he left to look for Harry in "The Sacking of Severus Snape".

> 6. What do you make of the description of Severus as "batlike" in 
his
> oversized coat? Why does JKR continually connect Snape with bats?

Zara:
The comparison to bats, I think, was a way to make him seem a 
negative, "dark" character. He no longer seems batlike, swooping out 
of the office with teh Sword of Gryffindor in his hands.

> 7. Since Lily has no way of knowing about prejudice against Muggle-
> borns in the WW, why do you think she's worried that being a Muggle-
> born might "make a difference"? Given Severus's remark that Lily can
> do "loads" of magic, might the two children be talking about magical
> ability rather than prejudice against Muggle-borns? If not, why 
would
> he make that remark in that context?

Zara:
I think she asked, because Sev made it clear she would be handled 
differently by the school. (Not an Owl, someone coming to explain it 
all to her parents). If he is aware of the standard line of anti- 
Muggle-born proaganda (that we first encounter earlier in DH), his 
comment about her magic ability is perfectly apropos. She can't have 
stolen someone's wand to impersonate a witch, she quite clearly has 
innate magic she uses *without* a wand.

> 8. Severus tells Lily that only wizards who "do really bad stuff" 
are
> sent to Azkaban. What does this remark reveal about his sense of 
good
> and evil and age nine or ten?

Zara:
It's pretty normal. 

> 9. Severus is obviously lying when he denies dropping the tree 
branch
> on Petunia, but neither his words nor his "scared and defiant"
> expression make clear whether the magic is accidental or deliberate.
> Which do you think it is and why?

Zara:
I think it was accidental. His confusion makes more sense to me in 
that light. His initial statement, that he did not *make* it happen, 
would then be true in a sense of lack of volition. Also, he could be 
conmfused abouyt how to explain accidental magic to Lily, whom we 
have not actually seen experience any - she seems to do magic when 
she wants to, like Tom Riddle could. If we were supposed to think 
Snape could - I would have liked more than a single, ambiguous 
example to suggest it.

> Why doesn't something similar
> happen to James and Sirius in SWM where Severus is also wandless?

Zara:
Because once wizards start to train in magic properly, using wands, I 
think they tend not to do accidental magic as much anymore.

> 11. How in the world did the Muggle Evanses get through the barrier
> onto Platform 9 3/4 (or is this scene a Flint)?

Zara:
We are never told Muggles cannot pass the barrier. I see no reasont o 
suppose Muggles who know the secret, and attempt to walk through the 
wall with conviction, could not get through. Or maybe Lily had to sit 
them all on a cart and push. <bg>

More later!