CHAPTER DISCUSSION Chamber of Secrets Ch. 5. The Whomping Willow

[jeanine5715]

No: HPFGUIDX 188790

> 1. Not only Ron knows that underage wizards can use magic in case of
emergency, he quotes the chapter of the law to that effect. Was Molly's
home schooling that effective or does Ron really like to study more than
we were lead to believe?

jeanine5715:
I think this could be an issue which Molly has drummed into her children
for their own safety, bring the mother hen that she is. She would want
them to know that

  a) they can use magic if they really need to, and

  b) that unless there is real need, they must not do so


> 2. Is Arthur just placating Molly when he agrees not to make car
invisible or is he truly afraid of her?

jeanine5715:
I don't get the impression at any time that Arthur is afraid of Molly.
It has always seemed to me that she is very old-fashioned in her views
of the family and that in the final analysis she will always defer to
him.

>
> 3. What was your first impression of Whomping Willow? Did you expect
for it to make another appearance in the series?

jeanine5715:
I certainly didn't expect its subsequent appearances to have the
significance that they did. I assumed this was just another minor
illustration of the magic at Hogwarts. Instead it was another example of
Jo's craft in  introducing an important item in the guise of a comedy
interlude.

> 4. Snape implies that he would like to expel Harry. How can this be
reconciled with the commitment to help Dumbledore protect Harry we saw
him make in "The Prince's Tale"?

jeanine5715:
I wonder whether Snape feels such a burden of responsibility to his
promise to protect Harry that he has come to think that it would be
better for Harry to be out of the scene entirely, back home with the
Dursleys where he has the blood protection, and for Snape, Dumbledore
and the rest of the Order to continue their fight against Voldemort as
adults against adults. His promise was to Dumbledore but I wonder
whether he has come to regard it as more of a commitment to the memory
of his beloved Lily, to protect her son regardless, and he has now come
to realise the extreme danger that Harry is in, if her remains at
Hogwarts, almost as a pawn of the Order's fight against the Dark Lord.
While he has not yet learned of Dumbledore's intention to use Harry as a
sacrificial lamb i f need be, I think perhaps he has some sixth sense of
this and wants to protect Harry as much as possible. We see later in the
series that Snape is very protective towards the students when it really
counts, despite his grumpy manner to them in class.

> 5. "This was not the first time Snape had given Harry the impression
of being able to read minds". We know now that this impression was
absolutely correct. If Snape used Legilimency and knew that they indeed
could not get through 9 3/4 by regular means, why does he say what he
says?

jeanine5715:
The Legilimency, if it was practised on that occasion, would also have
told him that Harry was easily led by Ron.Perhaps this made him believe
that for Harry's own safety, and with reference above to my comments on
his promise to the memory of Lily, he thought it would be better if
Harry, a potential loose cannon, was out of the picture completely.

> 6. What do you think was that "large, slimy something suspended in
green liquid on a shelf behind Snape's desk?
>

Pickled gherkin. Why not?


jeanine5715