CHAPTER DISCUSSION: PS/SS 15, The Forbidden Forest

[ZaraG]

No: HPFGUIDX 188620

Zara:L
Thank you, Potioncat, for an excellent summary and interesting questions!
 
> Questions:
> 1) McGonagall is very angry. Is her anger justified? Do you think she recalls a similar situation between James and Severus?

Zara:
Interetsing suggestion, about McG maybe being reminded of past events. It had never occured to me. But I don't think so. While there are similarities (Draco/Snape trying to catch Gryffindors with a dangerous creature, as she thinks because said Gryffindors set up the Slytherins), she would have to have knows that the original incident was far more dangerous. She appears to believe that the dragon story is a fiction, so Draco was in no greater danger than being in trouble. On the other hand, she has to have known that Lupin really was a werewolf.
 
> 2) How much time passes after Harry and Hermione are caught before the detention in the forest is served? Why the delay?


Zara:
16 days, saith the Lexicon. And I think I shall take their word for it. Why? Before the detention, we are treated to a dscription of Harry's discomfort over everyone's reaction to his loss of House Points. After, Harry's worries move on to Voldemort's presence. As the latter is considerably more serious, I think there would have been no way to work the former into the story without a gap between when McG took the points, and when the detention happend. 

> 3) What do you think of Hagrid's attitude about the punishment?

Zara:
I am not sure what it is. I think his comments on the subject tell us more of his opinion of Draco.

> 4) What do you think of this punishment? How does it compare to the punishment Headmaster Snape will give in DH?

Zara:
It's probably ridiculous, but hey, it makes a good story. <g> I doubt Hagrid found anything special and dangerous in the same scale for Neville et. al. in DH, and I doubt Snape expected him to.

> 6) Firenze seems to know who the cloaked figure is. Do you think Dumbledore knows that Voldemort is in the forest? Does Dumbledore know Voldemort is in the castle?

Zara:
This seems implied by Harry and Hermione;s conversatoin at the end of the book. 

> 7) Gryffindor House was very angry with Harry, Hermione and Neville for losing so many points. Just a bit of speculation in your opinion--what was Slytherin House's response to Draco's losing 50 points?

Zara:
The incident represented a net gain of 100 points for Slytherin House. If everyone believed McG's assessment (that Draco was entrapped by Harry and Co.) it at least would not make them angry as things worked out well. If Draco were able to position himself as having successfully gotten Harry and Co, caught while they were up to no godd, it might have made him mnore popular.