CHAPDISC: DH31, The Battle of Hogwarts

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 184601

Thanks to Chris for his detailed summary and provocatove questions!

> 1.    Is it believable that there are no good Slytherins? Wouldn't
> one or two of them remain to fight? Are they all
> totally unredeemable? Or is it just herd mentality i.e. one leaves
> they all leave?

Zara:
Somehow, in reading that scene, I took McGonagall's order for them to 
leave first, to be a request they ALL leave. So I was not surprised 
when they all did.

> 2.    I would have thought that rumours of the ghosts
> pasts would definitely have been well known by all students. Bearing
> in mind that Harry and co. learn plenty about Nick, wouldn't someone
> from Ravenclaw have figured out about the Grey Lady and passed that
> information on?

Zara:
Harry never cared enough to find out until he needed her.

> 4.    How could Dumbledore not have found out that Helena stole
> the diadem?
> When you consider how difficult it was for him to get hold of the
> ring and help
> Harry obtain the fake locket, would he really not have found out
> information
> that resided in his own school? Doesn't seem very likely to me.

Zara:
Albus located the Ring and Diary through research into Tom's contacts 
with other people. That he did not consider interviewing ghosts that 
were long dead when he himself was a schoolboy, does not surprise me.

> 5.    Would Dumbledore really never have found the Room of
> Requirement? He
> also fails to find the Chamber of Secrets? For such an omnipotent
> wizard, that
> seems two rather big failures.

Zara:
The Chamber is explained if he is not a Parselmouth. After all, 
Godric, Rowena, and Helga failed to find it too, and I would hesitate 
to suggest they were inferior to Albus.

Albus did know of the RoR by the middle of OotP, but why he should 
know of one specific incarnation of it and suppose the Horcrux was in 
that one, is not clear to me. He may have even known of a different 
form of it before (the room full of toilets) just as the Twins 
thought it was a conveniently appearing broom closet.

> 6.    Isn't it a bit reckless to rush through the castle with a
> bunch of
> mandrakes? Surely the commotion in the castle would aggravate them?
> Aren't they
> at risk of killing innocent students/teachers?

Zara:
Perhaps they were not mature yet? Otherwise I guess it is a counsel 
of desperation. <g>
 
> 7.    Is it remotely believable that Ron could remember enough
> Parseltongue
> to enter the Chamber?

Zara:
Yes, completely.

OK, I will expand. <g> He has heard Harry use this one word in CoS, 
and again far more recently in the locket destruction scene. It's one 
word, possibly a short one. I find this believable.
 
> 9.    Do we think Tonks appearance at the castle makes her a
> good wife or a
> bad mother?

Zara:
Neither. It makes her a good Order member and Auror. If someone was 
going to stay with Teddy, I would say Remus makes more sense as the 
one to stay behind. Tonks ought to be better in a fight.

> 10.   What is going through Malfoy's head in the Room of
> Requirement? Is he
> only concerned about delivering Harry to the Dark Lord alive? Or 
does
> he want
> his family freed from Voldemort's influence and realises Harry may 
be
> his only
> chance for freedom?

Zara:
I suppose the second, though I think really it is again the sort of 
thinking that inspired him to work on the cabinet plan. He did not 
really want to turn Harry in, and the tiara seemed a useful 
distraction, if only Crabbe were smart enough to be distracted.

> 11.    Why is Harry suddenly so reticent to use the Cruciatus
> curse? Crabbe
> is trying to kill his friends – wouldn't this anger Harry more than
> his previous
> attempts with this curse?

Zara:
Perhaps because, until he casts the Fiendfyre, Crabbe is acting like 
a soldier of the other side? He's not attempting to frame kids or the 
like.

> 12.     Crabbe is a complete idiot – how could he manage to conjure
> such a
> devastating curse (Fiedfyre)?

Zara:
If Amycus can teach it, Crabbe can learn it. *snicker*

> 13. Why, why, why did she have to kill Fred???

Zara:
He was a relatively wimpy choice, actually. A member of the second 
Trio would have been bigger. (OK, a member of the first Trio would be 
even bigger than that...) But Fred is the token "kid" character 
killed, because war is bad that way.