The Diary, Harry and Ginny, Sevvie and Lily

[Catlady (Rita Prince]

No: HPFGUIDX 189113

ElfunDeb summarized CoS Chapter 13 in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189070>:

<< Harry finds himself drawn to the diary, often flipping through its empty pages with the unexplainable sense that T.M. Riddle is familiar to him. >>

I believe that the name T.M.Riddle was not actually familiar to Harry from the soul bit, but that it seemed familiar was part of a spell on the diary, a spell to attract a Parselmouth. Because Riddle had originally created the diary with the the memory in it to help some future person to continue Salazar Slytherin's project of releasing the basilisk to kill Muggle-born students, and the future person would have to be a Parselmouth in order to open the Chamber. 

I really think this is a leftover parallel with HBP: I believe that the Prince also put a spell on his book, a spell that would repulse most people who looked into it (repelling Hermione by giving her a very low opinion of its ethics and safety and repelling Ron by being illegible to him) but would welcome Lily's eyes - a plot point where it was important that Harry had Lily's eyes.

<< 5. Do you think Riddle's memory is part and parcel of his soul bit, or is it a separate enchantment, like the curses on some of the other horcruxes? Why did he incorporate this feature into a horcrux and not simply create a separate memorial? >>

Having just stated my opinion that Riddle put that memory (and its associated attraction spell) into that diary long before he learned how to make a Horcrux, I believe that the reason why he later turned the enchanted diary into his first Horcrux is that it was a deeply meaningful object to him, containing his discovery that he was the Heir of Slytherin and containing his first murder, and who knows what else.

In this thread, Janelle wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189081>:

<< I think that the memories in the diary are separate from the Horcrux, however, I think that the memories would have stayed within the pages of the diary without that soul bit. >>

Oh, yes. I didn't think of that while writing my above.

<< For Valentine's Day, Professor Lockhart enlists dwarves to dress up as Cupids and deliver valentines. >>

Is this the only time we encounter Dwarves in canon?

<< 2. What do you think is the source of Lockhart's appeal to women and girls? Is it his looks and charm, or is there magic involved? Do you think he's capable of one of Flitwick's Entrancement Enchantments? >>

I believe that part of what attracts women to Lockhart is magic, but not a spell he did. While he could have had someone else cast a spell on him or he could have used a purchased potion, I prefer to believe that it is innate Veela magic -- I can believe his mother was a Veela if I want to. 

His appeal is *not* just to women and girls; it is also to Justin Finch-Fletchley, whose comment on having read Lockhart's books was "Awfully brave chap. Have you read his books? I'd have died of fear if Id been cornered in a telephone booth by a werewolf, but he stayed cool and - zap - just fantastic." I prefer to understand this as evidence that Justin is going to be gay when he grows up and therefore is susceptible to Lockhart's flavor of Veela magic. Maybe it's pheromones.

Attraction is a big theme in this pair of books (CoS and HBP), isn't it? Harry is attracted to TMR's diary and the HBP's textbook; many women and girls and Justin are attracted to Lockhart, and TMR is very charming so that Harry automatically likes him, and he outright commented that he could always charm the people he needed except Dumbledore. I'm sure that's a small-c charmed, meaning people like him because of his manners, rather than a large-C Charmed, meaning he cast some kind of Love Spell (Like Spell? Trust Spell?) on everyone he met.

Megan asked in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189071>:

<< The only question I have is why Hogwarts still had Tom Riddle's trophy? Did they just never get rid of anything in the trophy room? >>

Somewhere Dumbledore said that very few people knew that Voldemort had formerly been Tom Riddle. So very few people would have had a reason for removing Tom Riddle's trophy.

Lee wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189084>:

<< did Harry and Ginny 'go all the way?' There are a few lines in HBP that refer to 'special walks by the lake' [paraphrasing here). I've often wondered about that....>>

And Zanooda replied in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189108>:

<< When Ginny invited Harry to her room at the beginning of DH and kissed him, he thought that "she was kissing him as she had never kissed him before" (p.116). This comment makes me think that this was the first time Ginny *really* kissed Harry, you know, with the promise of more :-). What they did at Hogwarts was quite innocent, I believe :-). >>

Complete agreement. I had gone to the trouble of find and typing that quote before I reached your post. She had clearly made up her mind (and was pushing through her nervousness) to (as she phrased it in terms of a birthday present) give him her virginity, and take his. I suppose she got the idea from reading too many adventure books in which the young hero "becomes a man" (digression by continuing to quote the Neil Young lyric "at the hands of a girl twice my age", which I have always found completely ridiculous, because it wasn't her *hands*, and if having sex made him a 'man' why didn't it make her a 'woman'?) as a gift from, not from his virginal girlfriend, from a confident and sexually experienced slightly older beauty, who 'knows' he needs this additional self-confidence to survive his adventures. 

If Ron hadn't come in the room and  interrupted, that listie who insisted that Harry would die to save the wizarding world from Voldemort but would leave a son, Harry Potter Jr, who looked just like him but without the scar, might have gotten his wish.

Bart wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189098>:

<< True, he pushed her away. But there were implications that their friendship wasn't all that open, not the least of which being Snape's reaction when she defended him, and the lack of recognition of their friendship on the part of Potter, Lupin, and Black when she defended him. >>

Yes, but how much of that was Rowling's need to keep the readers and Harry from knowing that Severus and Lily had been childhood friends?