Chapter Discussion: Chamber of Secrets Chapter 10, The Rogue Bludger

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 189036

 
> 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?
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Alla reaponded:
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> NO clue whatsoever, but sure I think it is reasonable to assume that he has some copies for advanced students, whom he may not think of as dunderheads, lol. Relic from earlier times? You mean from the times Filch dreams of? Students hanged on the ceiling by their ankles?
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> I do not know, I would say it is still being used, but just speculating.

Carol adds:
I wonder, though, how many students of Advanced Potions are also interested in DADA. Can you imagine Lily checking out that book? But Teen Severus would have been familiar with it, I'm sure, and perhaps future Auror Tonks checked it out when she was in school because she needed to be an expert in both subjects. But other than those two except Tom Riddle--and Dumbledore--who might have been interested in that book (for very different reasons, of course). My point is that the book would have been musty because it was rarely used and only by particular highly motivated students.

I suspect that, as someone else said, Polyjuice Potion was in other books as well, possibly the NEWT Potions book, although it could not have been made during a class session. It would have to be an end-of-term project for the seventh years or something like that.
 
> 3. Harry, Fred and George all recognize that the rogue Bludger is attacking Harry. Couldn't anyone else on the field see that? Or is it that the game matters more than any individual thing going on?
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> Alla:
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> I would definitely say that game matters more than any individual thing going on. I hope I am not having movie contamination when I am thinking about Oliver telling Harry about people dying during Quidditch? However, I was never sure if this was a stuff of school legends or true story, but even if those were legends and people do not go to the feel expecting to die, I think certain injuries are definitely expected. But then Fred and George, experienced players, consider the matter serious enough to voice it. I do not know.

Carol:
Then, again, it's the job of the Beaters to hit the Bludgers and direct them at various opposing players. Harry was specifically aware of the Bludger because it was focusing on him and Fred and George because it was their job to watch the Bludgers. No doubt the Slytherins, at least the Beaters and Seeker, were aware of it, too, but not about to complain. The other Gryffindor players might have been dimly aware that the Beaters weren't doing their usual good job of keeping off the normal Bludger, but they probably were too focused on their own jobs (scoring or blocking goals) to pay attention to the Seeker, who would also, IIRC, have been playing in a different part of the pitch, usually higher in the air than the other players. So, yes, it's partly that the game matters more to them than what was happening to Harry, but it would also have been outside their field of vision. And the same would be true of the spectators, who would be more likely to watch the Chasers and Keepers than the Seeker, who is usually just watching for the Snitch unless he happens to be chasing the Snitch (or feinting) in which case all eyes would be on him.
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> 7. Harry thinks that McGonagall is just as puzzled as he is when Dumbledore said the more important question is how the Chamber is being opened. Does Dumbledore know at this point that it would require the use of Parceltongue to open it?
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> Alla:
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> I would not put it past him; I am more annoyed that he says that "How" is more important question than "Who". Did he seriously know who was doing it? Not that I would put anything past him at this point.
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Carol:
I think that he means that the "who" has to be Voldemort, but the question is how Voldemort, who is currently vapor and not possessing anyone, could possibly open the Chamber of Secrets. DD knows who the Heir of Slytherin is (Riddle/Voldemort) and that he opened it the first time. According to the words on the wall, the Heir has opened it again ("Enemies of the Heir, Beware"). But DD certainly doesn't know about the diary or that the soul bit in it is possessing Ginny. He does, however, suspect that a soul bit is in Harry's scar--and Harry *was* in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Carol, who still thinks that DD asked Snape to find a way to see whether Harry was a Parselmouth and that Serpensortia was intended to serve that purpose