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

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 188797

Thank you, Alla for the recap and questions.

> 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?

Montavilla47:
This is one of those times (which happened less and less frequently
as the series went on), when Ron's being raised in the Wizarding 
World shows to his advantage.

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

Montavilla47:
I think he's meant to be comically afraid of her.  That is, she's
not secretly whipping him or beating him up.  She's got a strong
personality and he's the kind of husband who doesn't like to cross
his wife.

Also, that invisibility thing doesn't work quite right and by giving in
to Molly, he avoids the embarassment of having it fail right in the 
middle of the London.

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

Montavilla47:
I thought it was a cool idea.  I also thought it was funny that Snape
was more concerned about the tree than about the kids.  I had no 
idea it would become important 
later.
> 
> 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"?
> 

Montavilla47:
You got me there.  I can wank it that Snape thinks Harry is better
off under the blood protection of the Durleys' than at Hogwarts.  Or
I can theorize that Snape knew that Lucius was up to "something" that
year (maybe Dobby warned him and Dumbledore), and wanted Harry
to be well away from any fallout.

But there's no obvious reason for Snape to be taking this attitude, 
unless he's mostly bluffing and playing "bad cop," since he knows 
that McGonagall and Dumbledore prefer to take the "good cop" roles.


> 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?

Montavilla47:
Either he's not using full strength Legilimancy (just checking to see
if they are lying), or he's playing "bad cop."  See above.


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

The last kid who cheated on his potions final.