GingerNewt/RescuingGoyle/TrustingRemusOrPeter/HarryChildhood/DracoRedemption

Sun May 17 23:06:03 UTC 2009

No: HPFGUIDX 186626

Carol wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186548>:

<< McGonagall's fierce insistence that Harry eat a biscuit (I think it was a Ginger Newt), Yeah, that'll solve everything, Professor. :-) >>

Wasn't there speculation on list that the Ginger Newts contained a calming, comforting, or reasonableness potion?

Pippin wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186555>:

<< Do you think Goyle cared that one of the people who saved him from burning to death was a Dark Arts supporter and another had once used the cruciatus curse and they're possibly not sorry about it? Who cares whether they're sorry or not? >>

Shouldn't the bit after "Do you think Goyle cared that one of the people who saved him from burning to death was" be "a Dark Arts *opponent*"? Considering that GOyle himself was a Dark Arts supporter and a Voldemort supporter, he may have been confused about having been saved by an enemy of his side. (Altho', being Goyle, he might be confused even without a reason.)

Carol wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186558>:

<< The only person who wasn't in on the Secret Keeper change was Lupin, which must mean that he also wasn't in on the Secret itself. >>

He could have been let into the Secret by being shown it written in a note by the Secret Keeper in an imitation of Sirius's writing. 

<< So possibly, when he's talking (bitterly and angrily) about James thinking it was dishonorable to distrust his friends, he's not being entirely truthful. >>

Ouch! Does it make a difference if Remus figured that it was Sirius who distrusted him, not James and not Lily? 

<< But Sirius says in the Shrieking Shack that Wormtail had been passing information on the Order to Voldemort for nearly a year before the Potters were killed (which makes it odd that he didn't reveal that information before Dumbledore suggested the Fidelius Charm) >>

I assumed that every time that 'someone' (Wormtail) told Voldemort where the Potters were hiding, one of DD's spies (Snape?) told DD that LV knew, so the Potters moved to a new hiding place many times during that year. Maybe DD suggested the Fidelius because they were running out of hiding places. Or maybe because LV had started getting the information more quickly (due to questioning Wormtail more frequently).

Steve winterfell thinks in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186599>:

<< considering his childhood, that Harry turned out pretty well.>>

What was Dumbledore thinking when he left the Chosen One to be raised like that? 

One theory: he hadn't known that the Dursleys would be so cruel to Harry, and he didn't watch over Harry observantly enough to find out about it, or when he did find out, it was too late to do anything about it. Another theory: he thought that Harry would grow up being compassionate as a result of being on the receiving end of cruelty. Why would he think an unprecedented thing like that?

Carol wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186603>:

<< [Draco] at least wants to do the right thing as far as possible without being tortured or killed. >>

To which, a_svirn replied in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/186604>:

<< Does he though? Then what was he doing in the end of DH? Was he not trying to capture Harry and deliver him to his Lord and Master in order to regain his favour? Or, at the very least, sabotage whatever Harry was doing to prevail over Voldemort? >>

I'm pretty sure that Draco followed Harry into the Room of Lost Things because he figured that Harry was going there to fetch a weapon against Voldemort. I think Draco wanted to get the weapon himself so he could trade it to Voldemort for his parents' safe release. I can't think how he could have expected himself to be brave enough to negotiate with Voldemort. To me, even if he had presented the weapon to Voldemort as an unrestricted gift, Voldemort would have been more likely to kill him as a potential threat than to reward him.