Chapdisc CoS 9 / Chapdisc CoS 10

[Catlady (Rita Prince]

No: HPFGUIDX 189027

Potioncat discussed CoS chapter 9 in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189002>:

<< 2. What is Snape up to with his "Wrong place at the wrong time" speech? 3. What would have happened if Harry had told Dumbledore about the voices? >>

Since we found out about Legilimency, we can suppose that Snape was agitating Harry to bring his relevant thoughts to the top of his mind for Dumbledore to Legilimens. If so, then DD knew what Harry had heard even tho' Harry didn't tell him. If so, maybe we should re-examine the text from here until the snake duel incident for signs that DD was observing Harry for symptoms of mental illness and/or activation of the LV fragment inside him.

Carol answered the same question in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189006>:

<< It would have sped up the storyline considerably since DD (who can't, I think, hear the Basilisk himself even though he must suspect what it is and certainly knows the identity of the Heir of Slytherin) would have known for sure that Harry was a Parselmouth. As it is, I'm almost certain that he asked Snape to find that out, which is why Snape later had Draco cast Serpensortia in the dueling club and why he looked so shrewd (rather than shocked) when Harry actually spoke it.>>

I don't think DD already suspected it was a Basilisk. DD had only one Petrification at that time, not a pattern of Petrifications, and one normally doesn't associate Petrification with Basilisks (they kill, not petrify). Rowling cleverly set up a series of co-incidences such that none of the victims saw the Basilisk clear-on: the reflection in water for Mrs Norris, through the camera for Colin, etc.

I believe we learned in "King's Cross" that DD suspected Harry was a sort-of-Horcrux when he saw the fresh cut on baby Harry's forehead, so DD was probably mildly curious about whether the soul fragment transfers abilities to the human Horcrux, but he had no evidence yet indicating that Harry had Parseltongue ability.

If DD already knew that Harry was a Parselmouth, then learning of the voices could lead him to suspect it was a Basilisk, or if he already suspected it was a Basilisk, then learning of the voices could lead him to suspect that Harry was a Parseltongue, but if DD had neither of those suspicions already, then learning of the voices would be more likely to make him suspect that the soul fragment was speaking inside Harry's mind. That's what I meant by 'activation of the LV fragment inside him'.

So okay, if there was something about Myrtle's death that led DD to suspect a Basilisk then, he could have recalled that to suspect a Basilisk now, leading him to suspect Parseltongue. But Serpentsortia at the Duelling Club was a poor plan for testing the Parselmouth: Harry would never have spoken to it except that idiot Lockhart gigantified it, and Snape couldn't have known in advance that that was the mistake Lockhart would make.

Poohmeg wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189004>:

<< < 4. Why didn't JKR introduce Squibs in SS/PS? > There wasn't really an obvious place to bring it up - and it left something to reveal about Filch in this book. >>

Janelle replied in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189005>:

<< I think that she did through Neville's reference to being "all muggle"- she just didn't have or use the term. >>

Yes. That was at the Welcoming Feast in PS/SS: "Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville, "but the family thought I was all-Muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me -- he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned -- but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced -- all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here -- they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad."

That Neville's grandmother is a witch but thought that Neville might be "all Muggle"  gave me the erroneous impression for a long time that he was half-and-half like Seamus. I even thought that his witch mother had died of a broken heart after being deserted by his Muggle father, before I knew that was Tom Riddle's story.

Ceridwen discussed CoS Chapter 10 in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/189025>:

<< 2. Moste Potente Potions is a musty book. Are there other copies of this book around, perhaps in Snape's office, so advanced Potions students don't request this copy very often? Some of the illustrations are gruesome. Would this be a book an advanced student might need to use or is it a relic from much earlier times? >>

PS/SS said: "Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and he knew he'd never get one. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts."

If only some of the potions from Moste Potente Potions are too Dark to teach at Hogwarts and some of the others are taught in Advanced Potions, maybe they use an edition titled The Least Bad of Moste Potente Potions.