CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chamber of Secrets Chapter 18: Dobby's reward

Sat Jun 5 16:48:19 UTC 2010

No: HPFGUIDX 189271

> CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
> Chapter 18: Dobby's reward
> 
<snip summary>
> 
> 1. Harry is asking Dumbledore whether Voldemort put a bit of himself in Harry. After DH do you see it as foreshadowing of Horcrux? Why or why not?

Carol:
It's definitely foreshadowing. Remember the discussions on this list after HBP about whether Harry's scar contained a soul bit and was therefore an accidental Horcrux? (I distinctly remember being in the wrong on that point, but I hate Horcruxes!) But, of course, "a bit of himself in Harry" also served for the time being as a much-needed (and for the time being sufficient) explanation for Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue and the the link between him and Voldemort, which becomes stronger in GoF and OoP. It also fits with "the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal," (accidentally) giving him some of his own powers--the very powers, aside from Love, that make him "the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord." And, of course, he put a bit of himself (which we thought at the time was only a memory) in the diary, too, and, of course, the diary foreshadows the Horcrux motif because it *is* one.
> 
> 2. I know that Hagrid tells Harry that Lockhart was the only applicant for the job, but still why do you think Dumbledore hired him? Does it mean that Snape applying every year was after all a lie? If it was a lie, why Dumbledore did not teach DADA himself, instead of hiring incompetent imbecile whom I consider Gilderoy to be?

Carol:
Good question and one for which I don't have a definite answer. Of course, Lockhart is necessary to the plot of CoS and he, along with Quirrell from SS/PS, establishes the motif of a new DADA teacher each year, causing us to wonder whether the rumor that the position is jinxed is true. But I can't make up my mind whether Snape, who loves Potions and is an excellent potion maker, really would prefer teaching DADA. (Could it be that the students would be less surly and resentful--though not necessarily more competent--in a class that they actually wanted to take? Maybe it upsets him to see kids turning the Potions lab into a disaster area instead of being excited by the "art and science of potion making.") It's possible, however, that he did apply each year to teach DADA because it also upset him to see incompetents teaching it and he knew that he could do a better job and/or he thought that, with LV coming back at any time, it was a more important position than Potions. How someone like Snape, who is one of the few Wizards who can think logically, would fail to see that the position was jinxed, I don't know. Maybe he thought that the unending series of DADA teachers was simply caused by their unfitness for the job (which, in fact, was often the case). Or maybe he believed that he could easily undo a mere jinx if the need arose. If he applied yearly, he must not have thought that he would be fired or worse. DD, of course, knew better, and allowed not only Lockhart but Umbridge to teach DADA rather than prematurely giving the position to Snape. Only when he knew that he, himself, was dying and Voldemort's takeover of Hogwarts was imminent did he give the position to Snape, who was not only highly qualified to teach it but would, of necessity, be returning to the DEs after doing DD the terrible favor of killing him. In short, in HBP, it was finally time to give the job to Snape. Doing so earlier would lose DD a valuable assistant--and who knows what it would have done to Snape?
> 
> 3. Among many other things I hold Albus Dumbledore responsible for is him not shouting to Wizarding World about Tom Riddle being Lord Voldemort, while IMO telling useless nonsense to Harry about calling him one imaginary name instead of another imaginary name. But in this chapter Dumbledore easily shares such information and while he does it within limited circle of people, he does not ask them to keep it a secret or anything like that. Should I cross off this offense (my opinion of course) off the list and maybe realize that he may have shared such information more than once and people were not interested in sharing such information with each other?

Carol:
I'm quite sure that you should cross this item off your list. Certainly, DD had told *some* people (including, perhaps, Cornelius Fudge) that Tom Riddle was Voldemort. I doubt that most people cared. The early DEs followed him knowing quite well who he was, and others who knew him might not have believed that he went bad because he was so handsome and charming. The fact that he was a Half-Blood really didn't matter: As we see with little Draco in SS/PS, there are two kinds of Wizards, those with Wizarding blood in at least one parent and "the other kind"--Muggle-borns. Half-Bloods can become Slytherins; Muggle-borns can't. And once Voldemort became powerful, especially after he seemed invincible and even immortal, his Muggle blood didn't matter at all--as we see in GoF when he scoffs at his Muggle father and uses his blood to restore himself to a new body, speaking openly to the DEs of that feat.

Really, what good would it do to announce to the WW that Voldemort was the same handsome young Half-Blood who once worked for Borgin and Burke's? How would that help to defeat him, especially when the DEs he recruited were mostly Half-Bloods themselves (Pure-Bloods being a rare commodity) and the goal was to rule over (or exterminate) the Muggle-borns? The Pure-Bloods like Lucius Malfoy could still revel in their own superior blood, but they were no match in terms of power for Voldemort. And Bellatrix was such a fanatic that she refused to believe that her beloved Voldemort was a Half-Blood.
> 
> 4 Ginny insists her brothers would not tease Percy about Penelope, is there a chance that Fred and George will keep their promise?

Carol:
None whatever.

> 5. Dumbledore tells Harry " It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities ". Which choice of Harry's is Albus talking about here? Do you agree this is a difference from Tom Riddle?

Carol:
Apparently, the choice not to go into Slytherin, which, of course, is clearly different from Tom Riddle (and, for that matter, Severus Snape). But I also think that he's speaking in general terms, knowing that Tom Riddle chose, for example, to kill his own father and grandparents and make at least two Horcruxes. Harry, in contrast, has twice chosen to risk his life to fight evil and/or rescue an "innocent" victim from evil.
> 
> 
> 6. What did you think happened to big and scary Basilisk before DH?
> 
> 7. Harry is asking Dobby "Just promise never to try and save my life again." Did you expect a repeat performance from Dobby and did it live up to your expectations if any?
> In light of DH do you believe that JKR planned Dobby's character arc already when she wrote CoS? Why or why not?
> 
> 8. Please feel free to add your own questions.
> 
> 
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